
<ViWyX< AV,y 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No. 

Shelves 

TT9£ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



**&m 




REV. B. CARRADINE, D. D. 



THE 



BETTER WAY. 




. REV. B. CARRADINE, D. D., 

Author of " Sanctification," "The Second Blessing in Symbol,' 

"A Journey to Palestine," "The Lottery Exposed," 

"Church Entertainments," "The Bottle," 

and " Secret Societies." 



SECOND EDITION. 



!9£ 



M. W. KNAPP, 
PUBLISHER OF GOSPEL LITERATURE. 

Office of The Revivalist, Y. M. C. A. Building, Cincinnati, O, 
1896. 

PRESS OF CURTS & JENNINGS, 



\ 









PUBLISHER'S NOTE. 



IT affords the writer great pleasure to be able to issue this 
volume by Dr. Carradine. I have read his other books with 
delight and profit ; but believe that, fruitful for good as they 
have proved, this one, as he has been heard to predict, " will 
be more convincing and effective in leading people into the 
blessing of sanctification " than any other book he has written. 
It is surely a Bible gallery of beautiful pictures of " The Better 
Way." Will the reader not unite with us in praying that 
by its perusal many may be blest and God glorified? 

Cincinnati, O. REV. M. W. KNAPP. 



Copyrighted, 1896, by M. W. Knapp. 



The Library 
of Congress 



• 



WASHINGTON 






CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. page. 
Opening Words, 5 

CHAPTER II. 
The Better Redemption, & 

CHAPTER III. 
The Better Prayer, 13 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Better Hope, 16 

CHAPTER V. 
The More Exceu<Ent Sacrifice, 19 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Better Covenant, 23 

CHAPTER VII. 
A Better Experience, 29 

CHAPTER VIII. 
A Better Supping, 34 

CHAPTER IX. 
The More Excew,ent Way, 40 

CHAPTER X. 
A Better Life, . 48 

CHAPTER XL 
A Deeper Salvation, 56 

CHAPTER XII. 
A Greater Privilege, 69 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Better Resurrection, 75 

3 



4 Contents. 

CHAPTER XIV. PAGE . 
The Abundant Entrance into Heaven, 86 

CHAPTFR XV. 
The Better Reward at the Day of Judgment, .... 95 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Better Company in Heaven, 102 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Higher Grade in Eternity, 117 

CHAPTER XVIH. 
How to Enter the Better Way— Moses' Way, .... 124 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Paul's Way, 130 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Savior's Way, 134 

CHAPTER XXI. 
The Methodist^ Church Way, 141 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Some Witnesses in Wesley's Days, .... 153 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Some Witnesses in Our Time, 163 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
How I Entered, 180 



The Better Way. 



CHAPTER I. 
OPENING WORDS. 

IN seeking a location for a house, a man prop- 
erly desires the best location. In like man- 
ner we prefer the purest air rather than a malarial 
atmosphere. We want the best water, food that 
is not adulterated, and clothing that is not shoddy 
goods. In all this, one need not be selfish ; for 
there is abundance of pure air and water and 
everything else for us all. It would be a matter 
of astonishment to all if a man, having a choice 
between good and better, should prefer that which 
is inferior. The astonishment would arise from 
several reasons — one cause being found in the 
reversal of the universal practice of the race. 

Now, it is certainly surprising that, while men 
practice the rule of securing the best in the 
physical realm, they should act in a contrary man- 
ner in spiritual things, and be satisfied with a 
lesser grace and blessing when something far 
superior is theirs for the asking and seeking. 



6 The Better Way. 

When a young man once said to me, "I want 
all that God has for me," he might have added, 
"and the best that God has for me," and still 
spoken the truth and that which would have been 
pleasing to God. 

That a child of God should hear of this supe- 
rior grace, and live on contentedly without it, is 
a matter of amazement to the writer. The very 
rumor of such a grace should agitate the heart, 
inflame the soul with longings, and set one to 
traveling in that direction. 

If the rumor of gold in California created a 
perfect exodus toward the West, if a star led the 
wise men from vast distances to seek the Savior, 
how is it that we, as God's children, can remain 
where we are in the spiritual life, when the word 
to-day is flying from lip to lip, that there is a 
deeper peace and joy than is realized in regen- 
eration; that a sun has arisen instead of a star; 
that a pearl of great price instead of a box of 
treasure is to be possessed? In a word, that a 
" Better Way ?> is open for the believer to enter 
upon and walk Zionward w T ith joy upon the 
head, and sorrow and sighing fled away from 
the heart. 

If there is such a better way, the Bible will 



Opening Words. 7 

have much to say about it. And this is just what 
we have discovered. Both the Old and New 
Testaments abound in allusions and direct teach- 
ings in regard to the grace. The Gospel prepares 
the soul for it, and closes with the exhortation to 
the disciples to "tarry" for it. The Book of Acts 
is a record of how Jews, Samaritans, Romans, and 
Greeks entered upon this better w&y. The epis- 
tles evidently regard regeneration as an initial 
and transitional grace; that we are not to abide 
there, but sweep on to something higher and 
holier and better. 

With this thought in the mind, we ran our eyes 
through the Scriptures for expressions and state- 
ments which would confirm the fact. 

We think we found enough to arouse any 
thinking mind, that is not steeped in prejudice 
and set in a predetermined opposition not to be 
convicted or convinced. 

This little volume, carefully avoiding the 
crossing of the two other books we have written, 
will present the blessed truth of entire sanctifica- 
tion from repeated Bible statements to God's 
people, that there is a " Better Way." The word 
"better" is the key-note and idea of the book. 



CHAPTER II. 
THE BETTER REDEMPTION. 

THE Savior speaks of one redemption in John 
iii, 16: " God so loved the world, that He 
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." 

Paul speaks of another, deeper and profounder, 
in Ephesians v, 25-27: " Christ also love^ the 
Church, and gave Himself for it ; that He might 
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water 
by the word, that He might present it to Himself 
a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or 
any such thing ; but that it should be holy and 
without blemish. " 

Here is evidently something distinct from the 
first, and unquestionably profounder and more 
radical in its nature. In the one, sinners are 
saved from perishing; in the other, the Church is 
sanctified and made without blemish. 

The objection is made that the quotation from 
Ephesians reads, " That He might sanctify and 
cleanse it [the Church] with the washing of water 



The Better Redemption. 9 

by the word," and that the washing of the word 
stands for regeneration, and so knocks down our 
argument for another and deeper work of grace 
received after pardon. 

To this we reply by referring the reader to 
the Revised Version, where the corrected transla- 
tion reads: u That He might sanctify, having 
cleansed it with the washing of the water of the 
word." 

It was after a number of years of study of the 
Word of God before the author saw this inner and 
deeper redemption. He had seen facts in the 
spiritual life that had vaguely suggested the 
thought ; but it was only one day, in putting the 
two passages of Scripture together that are quoted 
above, that he suddenly recognized the startling 
difference, and the two distinct works they plainly 
teach. 

The writer has seen a Christmas present given 
to one in the shape of a box. To all appearance 
the handsome box itself was the gift; but on touch- 
ing a spring the lid flew open, and lo! inside 
was another box, and in the second was the real 
present. 

So we read that Christ died to save sinners; 
God gave Him to the world that men might not 



io The Better Way. 

perish. Through His blood we may approach God 
and obtain pardon. For years we thought this 
was all of Christ's redemption, when a spring 
was touched, the lid of truth flew open, and we 
saw that He also died to make His people holy; 
that while God gave His Son to the world that 
sinners might not perish, yet He, the Son, at the 
same time gave Himself to the Church that he 
might sanctify it. 

The world is one thing, the Church is another. 
While the world obtains one benefit, the Church 
also receives another of deeper character. While 
the shedding of Christ's blood saves the sinner, 
that same blood applied sanctifies the Christian. 

It seems that when He came on earth to do 
His Father's will, He also brought in His hand a 
love-gift for His Church. 

The angel recognizes this fact in His words to 
the Virgin: " Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for 
He shall save His people from their sins." 

The same thought appears in the passage : 
" Who is the Savior of all men, specially of those 
that believe." 

We know the explanation given of this verse 
by commentators. We know also that it can not 
be twisted into teaching Universalism ; that " all 



The Better Redemption. ii 

men" means here just what is meant in other 
places where the expression is used. Take, for 
instance, two quotations: " Then Herod . . . sent 
forth, and slew all the children that were in Beth- 
lehem. " Again: "And I, if I be lifted up, will 
draw all men unto Me." We know that all the 
children in Bethlehem were not destroyed, from 
the statement of history; and we know from life 
that all men are not drawn to Christ. This figure 
is an Oriental one, and one, for that matter, used 
to-day, and means simply a vast number. " Be- 
hold, all men have gone after Him." So it looked, 
but not all did. It is not intended nor received 
as a violation of truth. 

Here, then, is the word, " He is the Savior of 
all men;" that is, vast numbers. Revelation says 
they can not be counted, that they constitute an 
"innumerable multitude." But upon the top of 
this is the other striking expression, "Specially of 
those that believe." There are some men to 
whom Christ has never been and never will be a 
Savior. There is a certain number to whom He 
will only be a Judge. But to a great multitude 
He is a Savior, and, farther still, a special Savior 
to them that believe. The sanctified understand 
this special salvation. 



12 The Better Way. 

Going back now to the two passages in ques- 
tion, we see two things that must affect the 
thoughtful. The first contrast is "God gave His 
Son," over against the other statement, "Christ 
gave Himself." The second contrast is seen in 
that the Father's gift was to the "world," but 
Christ's was to the " Church." The third contrast 
is that this world "might not perish," over against 
the profounder spiritual thought that the Church 
might be "sanctified." 

In a word, there is an inner redemption. There 
is, in the great plan of salvation, pardon and purity 
provided for the human race. The first is offered 
to the sinner ; and if he accepts and becomes the 
child of God, then the second becomes at once his 
privilege and also his duty to possess. 

Well do we sing of our Savior — 

" Be of sin the double cure : 
Save from wrath, and make me pure." 



CHAPTER III. 
THE BETTER PRAYER. 

THE first prayer we call attention to is in Luke 
xxiii, 34: " Father, forgive them, for they 
know not what they do," This is the Savior's 
prayer for His murderers. There is not a word 
about sanctification in it. The supplication is for 
pardon, and pardon alone. We bless God for such a 
prayer; that it ever ascended in behalf of sinners, 
and is still ascending. But there is a better prayer, 
and it is to be found in John xvii, 17, where our 
Lord is praying to the Father for His disciples, 
and says, " Sanctify them." 

This prayer is the contrast of the other. The 
first was for His murderers ; this is for His friends 
and disciples. The first was for pardon ; this is 
for sanctification. Just as there was not a word 
about sanctification in the prayer for those that 
were crucifying Him, so there is not a word about 
pardon in the prayer for His disciples. 

It was a prayer for a distinct grace and bless- 
ing. The Bible always keeps them apart, and 
common sense ought to keep them separate. 

*3 



14 The Better Way. 

Some endeavor to evade the force of Christ's 
prayer for His disciples by saying that the prayer 
was for their being "set apart " to preach the gos- 
pel. But St. Mark tells us that this had been done 
three years before. In the third Chapter and four- 
teenth verse we have His inspired statement: "And 
He ordained twelve, that they should be with Him 
and that He might send them forth to preach." 

Others affirm that this prayer for the disciples' 
sanctification was that they might be empowered 
to heal and to cast out devils. But here we are 
met again \>y Mark's statement in the fifteenth 
verse of the same chapter, where we see that three 
years before the time of His prayer He had im- 
parted to them " power to heal sicknesses, and 
to cast out devils." 

A third objection has been made that this prayer 
was only for the disciples for a special time and 
occasion, and is not to be appropriated by us. 

To this Christ Himself replies in John xvii, 20: 
" Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also 
which shall believe on Me through their word." 
In these words He states that His prayer to " sanc- 
tify " is not alone for His disciples, but for others 
that were to come into the light through their 
word. 



The Better Prayer, 15 

Observe, also, that it was for those which shall 
" believe on Me." 

So the fact stands out that what He prayed for 
the " twelve " is for the great multitude of believers 
who have sprung up everywhere over the world 
and in all ages, under their words, preached or 
written. 

Yes, it is a Better Prayer. It is better to be 
holy than simply pardoned; and while we must 
have the first, let us not stop there, but sweep on 
at once from forgiveness, which is good, to sanctifi- 
cation, which is manifestly better for the soul. 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE BETTER HOPE. 

IN Hebrews vii, 19, the apostle says that the law 
made nothing perfect, but "the bringing in of 
a better hope did." This better hope, he tells us, 
has been brought us in the person and achievement 
of Christ. It certainly stands to reason that if a 
"better hope" has been ushered in, then there must 
have been once a good hope. The very expression 
"better" declares something to have existed before 
good in its line, but not equal to what is now men- 
tioned. All this is true to facts. The world lived 
under a good hope for four thousand years. Men 
by faith in the Christ to come were justified, served 
God, and went home to glory. The patriarchs and 
prophets lived, labored, and died sustained by this 
good hope. They were told, and then told others, 
that something better was to come with the appear- 
ance of the Messiah ; but died without the sight of 
the world's Redeemer, and without the enjoyment 
of the peculiar blessing He had for His people. 

For years of his early life the writer supposed 
there was no pardon of sin until the Savior came. 

What He did with the patriarchs, prophets, and 
J6 



The Better Hope. 17 

other good people, he does not remember. Accord- 
ing to his idea, there was no pardon or salvation 
until Jesus appeared. The thought that men were 
saved by a prospective faith in Christ, as they now 
are by a retrospective faith, did not occur to him. 
Observing that the Bible taught something very 
wonderful and gracious was to be enjoyed in the 
last days, that a better hope was to be ushered in, 
he, in ignorance of the profounder work of grace, 
stumbled on in the dark. 

The very expression " better hope " should have 
aroused thought ; but it did not at the time. 

What, then, is this "better hope ?" What does 
it do? The apostle answers in the nineteenth 
verse just quoted. 

It brings in perfection ; not pardon, but perfec- 
tion. Pardon, according to the writings of David, 
the prophets, and John the Baptist, had been known 
before. But a blessing called " perfection," a com- 
pleting, perfecting work of grace in the soul, is 
brought to the Church by. the Savior. What this 
perfection is we will speak of again in the next 
chapter; will simply add here that the Methodist 
Church has much to say about it, calling it by the 
various terms of "perfection," "perfect love," 
"made perfect," etc. 



1 8 The Better Way. 

These terms are not synonyms of pardon, but 
represent something to be possessed and enjoyed 
after justification. This fact is sounded forth in 
the words of the pastor of every Methodist Church 
with all new accessions to the membership, in the 
exhortation in the Ritual: " Brethren, do all in 
your power to increase their faith, confirm their 
hope, and perfect them in love ;" while in the Con- 
ference the bishop asks every preacher who seeks 
admission into the traveling connection, and into 
the local ranks as an ordained minister, the ques- 
tions: "Are you going on to perfection?" " Do 
you expect to be made perfect in love in this 
life?" "Are you groaning after it?" 

A second result of the better hope, we are told 
in the nineteenth verse, is, that "we draw nigh 
unto God." 

There is such a thing as serving God at a dis- 
tance ; as feeling Him near one day, and afar an- 
other. But the blessing that the Savior brings to 
us in the better hope is that we draw nigh to God. 
What is more, we feel nigh, and stay nigh all the 
time. Christ is no longer a visitor, but comes in 
as an in dweller. Abiding thus in the heart always, 
the sweet, delightful experience is that we are nigh 
to God. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE MORE EXCELLENT SACRIFICE. 

CT T. PAUL, in Hebrews xi, 4, tells us that "Abel 
^-^ offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice 
than Cain." 

If there is any dependence to be placed in 
grammar and the laws of language, there must be 
a good sacrifice, if there be such a thing as a more 
excellent one. 

Most of us have passed a hasty judgment upon 
Cain; and because we find him the first murderer, 
we conclude there was never any good in him. A 
little charity and sober reflection would greatly 
help the inquirer after truth. 

Let it be first remembered that both Cain and 
Abel appear as worshipers of God. Both bring 
an offering. Cain came with the fruits of the 
ground — something that was allowed in the Levit- 
ical worship ages afterward ; but Abel, with a pro- 
founder view of the atonement, comes with the 
lamb and with blood ! 

Now let the reader mark that while God said 

that sin lay at the door of a man whose gift was 

19 



20 The Better Way. 

not accepted, and whose worship was not received, 
He did not say that the offering of Cain was a 
sinful one. 

There was sin at the door of Cain ; it may have 
been in his not apprehending and emphasizing 
the blood as he should, and as Abel did. Anyhow, 
God, in view of what redemption was, and how 
it was to come, was compelled to pay peculiar 
respect to AbePs offering. 

In His own Word He says it was a " more ex- 
cellent sacrifice, " just as Paul, after describing a 
certain kind of spiritual life, tells us there is a 
more excellent way. 

The thought is wonderfully impressive, that 
there is a more excellent way of approaching God, 
and a better sacrifice. 

Cain is a type of a large body of worshipers 
of God to-day, who come with the fruits of Chris- 
tian living. Busy lives, religious activities, great 
performances in and for the Church, seem at 
times so stressed that the " blood " is almost, if 
not altogether, lost sight of. A preacher making 
his report on the floor of a Church assembly, and 
telling of the many conversions he had witnessed, 
was brought up sharply with the words : " How 
much money did you collect ?" 



The More Excellent Sacrifice, 21 

Cain is still at the altar. The fruits are still 
brought up in abundance. We do not condemn it ; 
we simply affirm there is a better sacrifice. 

There are Abels in the Church who have gone 
to the heart of the atonement, and seen its glory. 
They exalt the blood every time, and at all times; 
the blood at the beginning and at the ending ; 
the blood now, always, and forever; the blood 
for justification, and the blood for sanctification. 

No wonder God accepts them, and peculiarly 
blesses them. Cain, who still lives, notices these 
things. He sees a more excellent sacrifice has been 
offered, gets irritated and angr^ over the shining 
face and glowing experience of the Abels of to-day, 
and again raises his hand and strikes at, or strikes 
down in some way, the more spiritual worshiper, 
the man who has been more blessed than himself, 

If, as a worshiper to-day, one is disturbed and 
angered over the deeper experience of another, 
that very irritation declares the existence of some- 
thing that ought not to be, and that God wishes 
and is willing to remove. 

" Sin lieth [or croucheth] at the door," was the 
word of God to Cain. Something, indeed, of a 
dark nature is crouching in the heart of a follower 
of God who would strike or in any way hurt a 



22 The Better Way. 

man whose main fault is, that he is in the enjoy- 
ment of a profounder knowledge of God, has a 
more intimate union with Christ, and has a secret 
that all have not, who name the name of the 
Lord. 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE BETTER COVENANT. 

IN Hebrews, chapter viii, verse 6, we have the 
statement that Christ is "the mediator of a 
better covenant. " In the seventh verse mention 
is made of a first covenant that in time is made 
to give way to a second, which in the sixth verse 
is called " a better covenant." 

The world lived under the first covenant for 
four thousand years. Under it men and women 
served God, and went to heaven. Under it flour- 
ished the patriarchs and prophets. Such men as 
Samuel and David, and such women as Deborah 
and Anna, glorified God, and left the world better 
for their being in it, through the grace that came 
in this dispensation. 

John the Baptist lived under the first covenant, 
preaching and warning, and so preparing the way 
of the Lord by " giving knowledge of salvation 
to His people by the remission of their sins." 

The Savior Himself lived and died under the 
first covenant, but prepared His followers for the 
44 better covenant," which was set up on the 

23 



^4 The Better Way. 

morning of Pentecost, and in descending flames 
of fire established in the hearts of the praying, 
waiting, expectant Christian Chnrch. 

Christ brought to "His people'' the " better 
covenant," about which Paul enlarges in the 
eighth chapter of Hebrews. 

Against the first covenant several objections 
are filed by the apostle. He does not say that it 
could not save. On the contrary, the Bible teaches 
that it did. Elijah was translated under it, and 
Elisha worked*wonders and went to glory through 
its power. But listen to the objections. 

One was that it could not make " the comer 
[worshiper] perfect." Second, the "old sin" was 
not "purged away." Third, there was a "constant 
remembrance of sins." All of which is well under- 
stood by the regenerated man, who feels that, child 
of God as he is, yet regeneration is not the bless- 
ing of Christian perfection ; that the "old man" is 
not yet purged or burned out with the baptism of 
fire ; and that he has, day after day and night after 
night, a constant remembrance of having done 
wrong, so that the bedside at night is a kind of 
altar at which he, a penitent, lingers, until he 
receives pardon and peace. 

The second covenant which was brought by 



The Better Covenant. 25 

Christ, and is called by Paul the " better cove- 
nant, " has the following features, according to the 
eighth chapter of Hebrews. It is seen to be better, 
because — 

It brings purity instead of pardon. L,et it be 
understood that, for Christ's sake, pardon was 
given under the first covenant and continued in 
the second. He was the Lamb slain before the 
foundation of the world. Men were saved by a 
prospective faith in Him in the old dispensation, 
as they now are saved by a retrospective faith. 
But w r hen He came he brought a new covenant, 
the excellence of which is seen in the additional 
blessing of purity. The "old sin," called variously 
the "old man," "carnal mind," "the sin that 
dwelleth in me," etc., is removed by sanctifying 
fire and grace. 

The worshiper is made perfect. Not the per- 
fection of Christ, or of angels ; but God perfects 
His work in the heart by the removal of inbred 
sin. With the conscious grace wrought in his heart, 
the man feels that he loves God with a perfect 
heart. 

There is no remembrance of sins every year, 
or week, or day, or moment. But the "old sin" 
being purged away, which occasioned the witting 



26 The Better Way. 

or unwitting slips and falls, behold, the worshiper 
now goes on a joyful way, and, kept cleansed 
moment by moment, ends the day, as he began it, 
with joy, and transforms his bedside from a 
mourner's bench of sighs, tears, confessions, and 
lamentations, into an altar of glad thanksgivings 
and praises to God for His constant delivering, 
cleansing, and keeping power of the day. 

The law of God is written in heart and mind. 
(Verse 10.) It would be hard to describe this to 
one not having the second covenant experience. 
The Bible becomes a new book, an illustrated one 
at that, and seems to be imbedded in the mind. 
There seems to be a Bible within. The preached 
or read Word of God finds a sweet echo within. 
There is delightful agreement with the soul of 
such a man and all that is written in the printed 
Word of God. Truly, the Word is now hidden in 
his heart, and he finds it sweeter than the honey 
or the honeycomb. 

All in this experience know God from the 
least to the greatest. (Verse n.) The writer has 
been often struck with the ignorance of God\s 
truth, and dealings, among those who live under 
the first covenant. Such a veil seems to be in 
the Bible, and such hardness and cruelty is attrib- 



The Better Covenant. 27 

uted to the providence of God. On the other 
hand, when believers come into the better cove- 
nant they at once seem to know God. They so 
thoroughly know Him that they believe in Him 
when they can not understand His dealings, nor 
decipher the whole sentence of His providential 
writing. 

"From the least to the greatest" this knowl- 
edge of the Lord is recognized. It is truly 
wonderful how the very young will come into a 
spiritual wisdom and knowledge beyond their 
years when they receive this blessed experience. 
It is the peculiarity and glory of the better cove- 
nant; all, from the least to the greatest, know 
God. 

It does not decay nor wax old. The other 
did. And all that live to-day in the first covenant 
experience, find a decaying experience, and their 
spiritual life getting old and feeble. Many are 
the journeys made to camp-meetings, many the 
ministerial prescriptions taken, in order to rally 
the energies and restore the health and protract 
the life. 

In the better covenant of sanctification, the 
principle of decay is taken out; the balm of Gilead 
is placed in the soul; there is a constant, conscious 



28 The Better Way, 

stream of life, strength, and health in the spirit; a 
welling-up joy in the heart; freshness in the ex- 
perience; hallelujahs in the soul and on the lip; 
and Christ and heaven everywhere. 



CHAPTER VII. 

A BETTER EXPERIENCE. 

7V GOOD experience is taught in Rom. v, i : 
(T^ " Therefore being justified by faith, we have 
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

A better experience is spoken of in Philippians 
iv, 7, where the apostle says: u And the peace of 
God t which passeth all understanding, shall keep 
your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. " 

The contrasted experiences are " peace with 
God," and " the peace of God." The prepositions 
are different; their meaning is not the same; and 
the latter expression is so much profounder than 
the other. 

Peace with God is the result of a changed rela- 
tion. Being justified or pardoned through faith, we 
are turned from enemies into the friends of God, 
and have peace with Him. It is a very blessed 
change, and the peace is very sweet. But we do not 
possess it long before we discover how easily it is 
affected by circumstance — by change of weather, 
departure of health, and loss of friends and property. 

Sometimes, without any explainable cause, it is 

29 



30 The Better Way. 

gone, and the heart is left restless and the soul 
burdened. In vain we seek the reason; clouds are 
round about the throne, and darkness is in us. 
Truly there should be a sweeter, steadier, and 
more abiding experience than this; and, thank 
God, there is such a grace and blessing. 

The peace tf/God is not the result of a changed 
relation, but is a bestowment. It is God's own peace 
given to us. Let the reader think a moment of 
this peace of God! Let him brood a moment on 
the calm that dwells in the Divine breast. Nothing 
can disturb it. It is there in spite of all that is 
thought, said, and done against Him. In spite of 
wrath of enemy and betrayal of friend, the holy 
calm, which is the peace of God, abides. 

This peace God is willing to bestow upon be- 
lievers who will comply with certain conditions. 
The instant that it is received by the regenerated 
soul the man stands amazed at its blessedness. 

Paul gives three features of this better experi- 
ence: 

It " passeth all understanding." No brain can 
compass it, no intellect understand it, no tongue 
explain it. It is there, a heavenly gift or deposit 
in the soul — a profound mystery, but also a pro- 
founder reality, filling one with wonder, love, and 



A Better Experience. 31 

praise. How often the writer has heard people in 
the enjoyment of this higher grace say, "I can not 
understand it !" The constant sweetness, freshness, 
and restfulness it brings to the soul causes the pos- 
sessor to be filled with gratitude and adoring won- 
der. It abides in and through all conditions. 
Friends leave, love grows cold, losses befall; but 
the peace of God which passeth all understand- 
ing, still remains. 

It " keeps the heart." 

The heart is the seat of the desires and affec- 
tions. A perfect world of sensibility and sensitive- 
ness is the heart. The regenerated man finds great 
difficulty in restraining and controlling it. Many 
tears have been shed over these failures, and many 
sighs heard at the recognition of its perverse incli- 
nations and manifold wanderings. 

But there is a blessing that keeps the heart. 
The peace of God can and does do so. As Chris- 
tians receive this grace they are made to marvel 
at the trust, the quiet, the self-control, and self- 
containedness within. We are in the same world, 
with its allurements, bewilderments, and sapping 
influence and power ; but something has been given 
to the soul that keeps it unmoved and sweetly tri- 
umphant through all. 



32 The Better Way. 

It " keeps the mind." 
Here is seen the antidote for the fret and worry 
of life. The disappointments of business life, the 
annoyances of home life, and all the manifold and 
nameless trials that are found as we progress 
through the world, are delightfully met and over- 
come through this blessing. Many Christians go 
down under this wear and tear. The face becomes 
wrinkled, the eyes have a tired look, the voice gets 
a fretted, worried tone, and premature age sets in. 
But this sweet peace of God smooths out the 
wrinkles, takes out the fret, gives a soothed feeling 
to the breast, and makes the voice itself a tranquil- 
lizing power in this poor, tired, heart-broken world. 

It keeps the mind ! 

Here, also, is seen the deliverance from error, 
wrong doctrine, erroneous teaching, that Satan 
loves to sow in Christian people and in Churches. 

Until this steadying blessing is received, it is 
wonderful how easily the child of God can be in- 
doctrinated with false teaching. His very tender- 
ness of heart, hunger for truth, and willingness to 
be taught, increases his danger. So numbers be- 
come a prey to the teachers of various "isms" 
and the spreader of foxfire and wildfire. 

The peace of God delivers us here. It is the 



A Better Experience. 33 

grace that grounds and settles, so that we are no 
more " tossed about with every wind of doctrine." 

It keeps ! This is the glad and blessed ex- 
perience of the sanctified man. He awakens with 
the smile of God upon him ; all through the day is 
realized the undergirding. He notices with a de- 
lighted wonder that cares, assaults, trying condi- 
tions, fall away before him, as the waves split and 
fall to the right and left, under the irresistible 
prow of the rushing steamer. The afternoon is in 
no whit behind the morning, but works the same 
calm, undisturbed state. The night, with its re- 
turn home— no matter what that home may be — 
finds the soul still kept, with a sense of freshness, 
sweetness, and stillness that is even more amazing 
to the possessor than to the beholder. 

The writer enjoyed u peace with God" for four- 
teen years. He has had the "peace of God" six 
years. The latter is greater than the former. As 
it passeth all understanding, of course it passeth 
all power to describe. He can only look up to 
heaven with a great thankfulness of spirit, and 
say, "It keeps." This may not mean much to the 
world; but it means everything to the one who 
pens these lines. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
A BETTER SUPPING. 

IT is wonderful how the twofold work of grace 
appears in the Scripture to the anointed eye. 
Passages that once bore one meaning are made, 
under the Spirit, to have another and deeper teach- 
ing ; and verses that seemed to have in them a 
repetition of the same truth, are seen, under closer 
study, to be statements of the Double Cure of 
Salvation. 

In Bible study one day, we suddenly saw the 
dual blessing in Rev. iii, 20 : " Behold, I stand at 
the door and knock ; if any man hear My voice 
and open the door, I will come in to him, and will 
sup with him, and he with Me." 

Let the reader put the two following expres- 
sions together, and see if he does not observe a 
decided difference : " I will sup with him," "And 
he with Me." 

For a long time we thought the verse referred 
to one occurrence or experience of grace ; but one 

day, while reading, two distinct spiritual facts and 
34 



A Better Supping. 35 

states suddenly appeared, as under the telescope 
sometimes one star becomes two. 

" I will sup with him." This is what hap- 
pened when we were regenerated. Christ came 
into our poor hearts, and sat down at the table we 
spread for Him. 

The reader certainly knows what it is to have 
some one sup with him. This means that the 
reader spreads the board, goes to expense, does 
the entertaining, and is the minister and servant, 
so to speak, of the guest. Such is the regenerated 
life. Christ comes in, and we commence the life 
of service and entertaining. How we spread the 
table with our poor works and imperfect perform- 
ances ! What a time we have to make a fair ap- 
pearance that will recommend us to the favor of 
the Divine Guest, who sits at the table of the 
heart watching what we are doing for Him! Dish 
after dish of some new w r ork or duty is laid before 
Him, with the hope that He will smile upon and 
approve. What a hurry and flurry it brings into 
many lives ! It is no small thing to entertain any 
one, even of our own kind. Few can do it with- 
out worry and considerable strain. What, then, 
shall be expected when the Lord is at the board ? 
And as we ask the question, we see the answer 



36 The Better Way. 

in many an anxious and exhausted-looking Chris- 
tian face. We have known persons who have had 
to go to bed, or take a trip of a few days, aftet 
having entertained friends for a few days or weeks, 
And in the spiritual life, we see preachers taking 
Monday for recuperation, and Christian workers 
going to the mountains for a vacation to recover 
from the fatigue of the service or entertainment of 
the Lord. 

Is there any thing better than this ? one will 
ask. The reply is in the last sentence of the 
verse : "And he will sup with Me." 

The slightest glance ought to reveal the differ- 
ence, and show the great truth hidden in the six 
words above. 

It is one thing to entertain a friend; it is de- 
cidedly another thing to have this friend entertain 
you. And what if the friend is very rich? Sup- 
pose the reader has a wealthy friend. In your 
love for him, nothing will do but that he must 
dine or sup with you. Your house, however, is 
humble, your purse slim, and your bill of fare 
quite meager ; but it is the best you can do, and 
you desire to manifest your affection in the line 
of entertainment. The rich friend who accepts 
your invitation is very gracious ; he comes, and as 



A Better Supping, 37 

he eats, praises all that is set before him. He 
does not let a sign escape to show that he is ac- 
customed to anything better. You have misgiv- 
ings that what you are doing for him is poor in 
character; but you so love the person, and you so 
want him at your board, that you persist in hav- 
ing him again and again as your guest in spite of 
nervousness and forebodings. 

But one day this rich friend asked you to dine 
or sup with him ! That meant that he paid the 
bills, rendered all the service, and did the enter- 
taining. That meant you leaned back in your 
chair and enjoyed the luxury of being waited on 
and entertained. You were now supping with 
him. What a supper ! What dishes ! What 
food ! What service ! It was not a poor man pro- 
viding for a rich friend, but a rich man entertain- 
ing a poor man. 

Something of the spiritual rest, abundance, and 
satisfaction that is in the verse begins now to ap- 
pear. Sanctification now rolls into sight. 

Christ is the rich friend whom we entertained 
for years. The wonder is how He endured the 
poor entertainment ! At the best it was poor. 
But He smiled upon and approved all we did for 
Him, and, as He sat at the board, praised the poor 



38 The Better Way, 

dishes and awkward service. His smile lighted up 
the narrow little room, and we were happy. 

But one day he said: " Let Me entertain you — 
suppose you come and sup with Me." We did so; 
and lo ! what a change, what a difference, and 
what an improvement! He loads the table with 
a variety and fullness of spiritual provisions and 
fruits that amazes and delights. There is no lack 
of any good thing at any time. There are con- 
stant surprises given the soul, with new and boun- 
tiful supplies of grace. The heart is fed, satisfied, 
and filled to overflowing. The bread is fresh, the 
honey drips, and the wine of a holy joy sparkles. 
Above all, Christ does the entertaining ! He not 
only supplies the food, but waits upon the soul; 
and He not only ministers to the spirit, but grants 
us a heavenly speech, a holy communing with 
Himself, that fairly ravishes and absorbs the soul. 
Talk about people crowned with flowers at a ban- 
queting board, with strains of music floating about 
them from unseen players ; and how the whole 
thing becomes as nothing compared to the state 
of the soul treated to the food, music, speech, and 
presence of heaven ! There are aches in the heart 
of the earthly banqueter ; but where can be the 



A Better Supping. 39 

pain to him who is lulled, rested, and smiled upon 
in the embrace of the Savior? 

For fourteen years the writer tried to entertain 
the Savior, and what a stretch and strain there was, 
and what exhaustions and failures were realized ! 
For six years the Savior has entertained the writer. 
He now sups with the Lord ! This is far better. 
His peace now flows like a river, his soul is satis- 
fied as with marrow and fatness, and his rest is un- 
fathomable. May the reader never rest until he 
knows for himself the bliss and blessedness of the 
second supping ! 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE MORE EXCELLENT WAY. 

IF there is a more excellent way, then there 
must of course be a good way. This good 
way is seen in i Corinthians, chapter xii. Let 
the reader run his eye down the verses, and in the 
expressions that abound in the chapter the good 
way is revealed. 

We call attention to them: " Diversities of 
gifts, " " differences of administrations, " '"diver- 
sities of operations/' "the word of wisdom/' 
"word of knowledge," "faith," "gifts of healing," 
"working of miracles," "prophecy," and "discern- 
ing of spirits." 

All these terms will be recognized by the 
reader as describing a life that is well known in 
the Church to-day. Here are gifts, offices, admin- 
istrations that are felt worthy of striving for, and 
one is most fortunate to possess. 

In the 28th verse mention is made of apostles, 
prophets, teachers, governments, etc. These ranks, 

with their succession of to-day, are greatly sought 

40 



The More Excellent Way, 41 

after and prized. He that desire th them " desire th 
a good thing." 

In the beginning of the 13th chapter the 
apostle continues to allude to the good way, in 
the expressions, " Speaking with the tongues of 
men and angels," "gift of prophecy," "understand 
all mysteries," " bestow all my goods to feed the 
poor," and " give my body to be burned." Here 
is a wonderful collection of desirable and beautiful 
things — eloquence, knowledge, benevolence, and 
the actual wearing out of the body in good works. 

Who is not struck with such a life? What 
praise and commendation such a character has 
ever, and will continue to awaken! When we 
speak of the higher experiences of the Christian 
life, we are promptly pointed to this character in 
the "good way." This is good enough for me, 
many will say. 

Doubtless such a life and character was thrown 
up to Paul. Anyhow, after reviewing the good 
way, he writes: " Yet show I unto you a more ex- 
cellent way." 

If any one asks what and where is this better 
way, the answer is, Read the 13th chapter of First 
Corinthians. 

Paul calls it " charity," but the truer transla- 



42 The Better Way. 

tion is "love," and one has but to read the chap- 
ter to see that it is not simply love, but " perfect 
love/' 

In describing grace as an experience, the 
apostle says: "It suffers long and is kind." We 
know that in the regenerated life we suffer, but it 
is not "long." Here is where we failed. A cer- 
tain amount of endurance may be allowed, but 
after that comes the explosion. We seem to be 
constructed after a short pattern. People must 
not provoke us long, sinners must not be stub- 
born long, or we can not hold out. We suffer, 
but we say there is a limit when patience ceases 
to be a virtue. This is the way we talk and act. 
The other thing that troubles the converted soul 
is the "kind" feature connected with the peculiar 
long-suffering of the more excellent way. The 
regenerated man suffers ; but it is not a long suffer- 
ing, and it is not a kind suffering. The sense of 
irritation, or, worse still, the explosion, sooner or 
later takes place. 

In the more excellent way of perfect love, Paul 
says we suffer long, and, wonderful to say, after 
suffering long, we are kind! Will any one affirm 
that this is not a more excellent way? 

"It envies not." This blessing enables one to 



The More Excellent Way, 43 

see a fellow-being rise, prosper, succeed, and flour- 
ish in every respect without repining. 

"It vaunteth not itself." The ego is retired. 
The "I did this," and "I did that," is changed to 
"I am blessed," "Christ sanctifies and satisfies 
me," "Praise God for an indwelling Christ!" 

"Is not puffed up." The puff is easily dis- 
cerned in one's manner. The assumed dignified 
appearance, the swelling air, the uplifted self- 
conscious head, the lordly gait, the studied attitude 
in pulpit or on platform, are well known. But 
they all disappear in the better way. Even the 
beaver hat has often been laid aside, because it 
seems to have the " puffed-up" look; for it certainly 
is not solid, but only a hollow space, and, in some 
cases, wonderfully suggestive of other hollow 
spheres that may be in the immediate vicinity. 

" Doth not behave itself unseemly." We have 
all noticed a conduct in Christians, so light and 
frivolous that one could not but grieve over it. 
The power to "keep the heart" seemed not to be 
possessed, and the very lightness of heart pro- 
duced by a sense of acceptance of God, was suf- 
ficient to betray them into a gayety that became 
finally hysterical, and left the soul with an empty 
heart and condemned feeling. In the more ex- 



44 The Better Way. 

cellent way, the heart, from a constant conscious- 
ness of the presence of Christ, is strangely and 
sweetly delivered from the unseemly in conduct 
and conversation, and while always cheerful, yet 
is easily self-contained, and ever keeps in touch- 
ing and speaking distance with the Lord. That 
full presence of Christ in the soul and in the life 
causes one to " walk softly," while at the same 
time freely and joyously, through the world. 

" Seeketh not her own." 

Some men seek what belongs to others. For 
a man to seek his own is thought to be commend- 
able according to the ethics of this world. It is 
even felt to be right in the Christian world, and 
the preacher dreams of high-steeple churches, con- 
nectional positions, and the bishopric. But here 
is one who seeks not his own. He demands not 
what is his right, and refuses to enter into sharp 
disputes about the fulfillment of certain things that 
had been promised him. 

The writer once read of a little motherless girl 
who would be given things by other children, and 
then have them snatched away. She had lived 
thus for several years, and had learned to lay a 
very light and loose hold on everything. Her 
hands would hold articles and playthings, that 



The More Excellent Way. 45 

had been given her, as if she expected them to be 
taken away the next moment. 

In like manner the soul in the " better way " 
holds to things of earth. It feels motherless and 
unloved here. It expects to have all these things 
snatched away, and is ready to give them up at 
any moment, and stands with a far-away look in 
the eyes, indifferent about the possession of pleas- 
ures, treasures, promotions, dignities, and all such 
things about which so many thousands are strug- 
gling, clutching, pressing, living, and dying. 

The man, could by a certain course, become this 
or that, or obtain yonder or another thing. But 
he has come to see there is a certain hollowness 
in " eloquence, " " governments, " " administra- 
tions," etc., etc., and having found the very juice, 
marrow, and substance of the Christian life is not 
in position or authority, but in the more excellent 
way of perfect love, he is satisfied to live with 
his hands stripped of earthly rewards and honors, 
while his soul is filled with glory and heaven all 
the while. 

" Thinketh no evil." 

That is, suspecteth no evil. Is not quick to 
judge. Is slow to attribute wrong motives to peo- 
ple. Is slow in its simplicity and childlikeness 



46 The Better Way. 

to take offense. Is actually slighted and cut, and 
probably struck at, but feels no resentment, or 
evil in the heart that the Lord has made like 
His own. 

Let the reader study at his own leisure the 
remaining features of the more excellent way. 
What a wealth of grace we see hidden under such 
expressions as "rejoiceth not in iniquity," " re- 
joiceth in the truth," " beareth all things," "be- 
lieveth all things," " hopeth all things," " endur- 
eth all things !" 

Does not the slightest examination show that 
here are graces, and here is a life that regenerated 
people do not live save in a spasmodic w r ay, while 
the concluding statements about this experience 
is that it " never faileth ?" 

" Never faileth !" This is the crowning beauty 
of sanctification as an experience. It bubbles up 
in the heart as we awake in the morning ; runs 
steadily through the morning hours ; does not dry 
up at noon, but sings and murmurs and splashes 
on its musical way through the afternoon ; has the 
same volume of power and gladness at the evening 
tide ; and when we awake in the night, it is found 
to be still an artesian well of gladness and salva- 
tion in the soul. 



The More Excellent Way. 47 

The writer recently heard a gentleman say 
that he enjoyed this blessing in its richness in 
the days of wealth ; that he lost all his money, and 
had to saw wood in a small Illinois town for a liv- 
ing ; that as he packed the wood up the steps of 
law-offices down-town, the blessing never failed 
him all that time ; that since then God had 
blessed him with abundant means again, and the 
same old blessing, with its same sweet old song of 
gladness, was abiding still in his soul. 

It never faileth ! Hallelujah ! That is what we 
love about it. It stands by us through thick and 
thin. When friends are many, or when they be few ; 
when health is our portion, or when a sick-bed is 
our lot ; when men speak kindly to us and about 
us, and soon after unkindly, — hallelujah ! no mat- 
ter who changes or fails, the blessing and joy of 
an indwelling Christ never fails ! This is the 
beauty, sweetness, preciousness, and glory of the 
experience, and this is the reason that Paul called 
it " the more excellent way." May every child 
of God find it, and walk in it! 



CHAPTER X. 
A BETTER LIFE. 

¥ARTHA and Mary were sisters. About their 
religious lives there can be no doubt. Their 
home open to Christ, their hospitality, their mes- 
sage to Him in time of trouble, their spiritual con- 
versation with Jesus at the grave of their brother, 
and the statement of Christ Himself that He loved 
them, show what the two sisters were. 

But while this is granted, immediately on closer 
examination we see a great difference. The road 
forks. The likeness changes suddenly into two 
dissimilar religious lives. 

Martha illustrates one life. We notice with 
pleasure that her house is open for the Lord, and 
that she is busy for Him. But the Scripture brings 
out curious facts that will find a strange response 
and recognition by regenerated people. 

" She was cumbered with much serving." O 

that much serving, and that heavy feeling that 

arises often as a consequence, in the Christian 

life! The wrinkles and careworn expression on 
48 



A Better Life. 49 

many Christian faces spell the sentence " cumbered 
with much serving." 

Then her eye was on her sister. One of the 
hardest things in the world for a regenerated per- 
son to do is to keep his eyes off his brother. u What 
shall this man do ? What is this man doing com- 
pared to myself?" 

Then her grief was in " serving alone." This is a 
great trial to the soul that has not passed into the 
experience and life of the sanctified. Regenerated 
people like to work in a crowd. It is hard to stand 
and serve alone. Indeed, none will do it will- 
ingly, much less successfully. There is a grace 
that qualifies one to serve God in utter loneliness 
and at the same time be happy. Martha did not 
possess it; neither do a good many of God's children. 

Again, she was careful and troubled about many 
things. Does the reader know such Christian peo- 
ple: full of anxiety about different things, troubled 
about the past, the present, and the future? You 
see the apprehension in the uneasy glance, and 
hear it in the querulous and fretting tone. Trou- 
bled about many things. 

Mary illustrates the sanctified life. The things 
said about her bring out the holy experience in a 
vivid and most agreeable way. 



50 The Better Way. 

"She heard His word." Not all do that. There 
are some words that Christ has uttered that regen- 
erated people will not listen to or receive. The 
emphasis should be thrown on the word "His" — 
"His word." Christ had peculiar words. His 
word was to declare His own special work. What 
was His work? Malachi said, to " purify the sons 
of Levi;" John the Baptist said, to " baptize with 
the Holy Ghost and with fire;" the angel said to 
"save His people from their sins;" and Paul said 
to "sanctify the Church." All agreed that He had 
a peculiar work, and that work to be the holiness 
of His people. So He spoke of that work very nat- 
urally and freely. It was this He was speaking of 
to the woman at the well in Samaria, as we will 
show in another chapter. This work constantly 
appeared in His words. Most men are listening 
to-day to Moses' word, and to John the Baptist's 
word ; but Mary, and others like her, are listening 
to "His word." 

She sat at His feet. What a picture of absorbed 
attention and deep satisfaction ! This does not rep- 
resent the ordinary Christian life ; there are many 
who love Christ, but few sit at His feet. " Mary 
sat still in the house," so another chapter says, 
when she was placed in trying circumstances. It 



A Better Life. 51 

is another picture of spiritual quietness and rest- 
fulness. There is a beautiful grace that enables 
the possessor to sit still. It is not related to indo- 
lence, and is nothing in the world like it. It is 
the marvelous calm and repose of a holy heart. 

Besides this, she could withstand misjudgment 
and abuse. " Lord, dost thou not care that my 
sister has left me to serve alone?" The sharp, 
querulous tone of Martha penetrates her ear, but 
utterly fails to disturb the serenity of her spirit. 
Mary answers not a word. Here is the glory of 
holiness. It can be found fault with, sharply and 
unkindly accused, and yet keep undisturbed. This 
is the spirit of the Savior come in, and producing 
again what was once seen in Himself when, al- 
though oppressed, afflicted, and reviled, He opened 
not His mouth. 

She gave her richest possessions to Christ. Here 
is the woman of the alabaster box and the costly 
ointment. Her eyes shine with love, her fingers 
gladly pour the costly spikenard upon the feet of 
her Lord, and with her hair she wipes them dry. 
Here is manifested the life of holiness. Many 
Christians keep back the costliest things; they 
withhold their reputation, their time, personal ease, 
and money; but the sanctified soul feels there is 



52 The Better Way. 

nothing too good for Christ. All things are dross 
compared to him. Gladly they suffer the loss of 
all things that they may win Him and enjoy His 
unclouded and blessed approval. There is no ala- 
baster box of temporal or spiritual treasure, but 
they gladly break and empty at His feet. They 
now say to him what He once said to them: "All 
things are yours — whether life or death, or things 
present or things to come — all are yours." 

" Mary hath chosen that good part." The 
single word " chosen " in the above quotation an- 
swers the objection made by some that the differ- 
ence between the sisters was a purely natural one, 
a mere question of temperament. But how can 
this be, when Christ said Mary had " chosen" what 
she had. No person can choose his temperament. 
Moreover, God never made a temperament that 
would militate against the possessor coming into 
the full enjoyment of religious privilege. This 
would make God unjust, and give an unanswer- 
able argument to the sinner and the low-plane 
Christian at the last day. Not a few think their 
temperaments prevent them from shouting and re- 
joicing openly. The Savior in the last few years 
has taught many of us better. The temperament 
dodge is very popular. It is as much sought after 



A Better Life, 53 

as fig-leaves were on a certain occasion in the gar- 
den of Eden, and as poorly hides spiritual naked- 
ness. The difference between Mary and Martha 
now appears, and is shown in the word " chosen." 
Mary hath chosen the good part or experience. 
Remember that persons can not choose their tem- 
peraments. Many people, with this world and God 
to choose between, take the Lord; and some, with 
two kinds of religious experience and life to select 
from, take the better of the two. Paul writes of 
the same thing when he says we may " covet ear- 
nestly " the one, and yet there is a " more excel- 
lent way." 

Thank God we can choose this higher, holier 
life, in which the soul sits always at the feet of the 
Savior! If we desire and prefer it above all things, 
it can and will be ours. 

She had the independent blessing. There is 
such a grace, and when it is in the heart it is mar- 
velous how little the mutations of time and the 
losses of earth affect us. Christ here described it 
in the words "one thing is needful." If there be 
but one thing needful, then all other things and 
beings are not needful. They can come or go, can 
smile or frown, can be for us or against us, and 
all the time the soul, in the enjoyment of the per- 



54 The Better Way. 

petual love and presence of Christ, is amazingly 
lifted above the force and influence of them all. 
The noisy house has become still; the " trouble 
about many things'- is gone, the cumbered feeling 
from much serving is a thing of the past. Let the 
earth be removed, and let the mountains be car- 
ried into the midst of the sea. A great content- 
ment, an indescribable satisfaction, reigns within in 
full view of the removing world, while the moun- 
tains thrown upon us by Satan and evil men are 
flung at once into a great sea of love and peace in 
our souls, which swallows them up, and melts them 
into nothing in its pure crystalline depths. 

She had the undeparting blessing. Thank God 
there is such an experience, a grace that never 
leaves us ! The Savior speaks of it here in these 
words : " Which shall not be taken away from 
her." 

Many of us have had sweet blessings that came 
like angels, and were as swiftly gone. A blessing 
of an hour or a day is a precious memory. A 
blessing that remained in the soul a week or month 
was regarded and spoken of in experience-meet- 
ings as a wonder. " There were giants in those 
days!" Men lived to be nine hundred years old. 
You paid a visit to that land and staid a month. 



A Better Life. 55 

How you talk about it ! Men forget that we are 
living in the latter days ; in the dispensation of 
the Spirit; when a little one shall chase a thou- 
sand; when a child shall be an hundred years old; 
and when we shall be able to obtain a blessing 
that shall last, not only a month, but a year, ten 
years, a thousand years, ten thousand years, and, 
indeed, forever. Christ has a blessing for us that 
shall never be taken from us. We die with it in 
the soul, enter heaven with it, and go through 
eternity with it. No one can take it away from 
us without our consent ; neither the world nor a 
formal Church, nor time, old age, Satan, poverty, 
trouble, delirium, nor death. It abides in us ever- 
more. 

The writer has had it unbrokenly for six years ; 
he has known of others who have enjoyed it stead- 
ily for ten, some for twenty, and one for fifty years. 
There are some in heaven who have had it thou- 
sands of years, and all of us who follow on will 
also, with them, enjoy it forever. 



CHAPTER XI. 

A DEEPER SALVATION. 

THERE are saved people and saved people 
and there is a great difference between them. 
Some people are saved in a manner, we say, and 
others are saved in a deep-down, through-and- 
throngh way. 

A man would be blind not to see these two 
classes. Both believe in Christ, both can tell the 
time of their conversion, both feel they have a title 
to Heaven, and yet any one can see that the work 
of grace has gone much deeper in one class than 
the other. 

The Bible speaks of the "strong" and the 
"weak," both being the Lord's. Christ tells of 
the seed that had not much depth of earth, and 
withered under the heat of persecution. He tells, 
again, of the branch that bore some fruit, and the 
one that bore much fruit. Out of the same vine 
came four different kinds of branches: One, bear- 
ing no fruit; another, some fruit; a third, more 

fruit; and a fourth, much fruit. 
56 



A Deeper Salvation. 57 

There is a profounder salvation seen in life, 
and as clearly taught in the Word of God. We 
call attention to expressions that can not but im- 
press the thoughtful spiritual mind : 

(1) "He will save His people from their sins." 
Here is a salvation from sin. Not from hell and 

from the consequences of sin, but from sin. The 
salvation that is popular with many is a salvation 
in sin ; that we keep Christ, and yet go on sin- 
ning every day. The verse above tells of a better 
salvation. 

(2) "Crucified with Christ." 

Here are death-pangs, and not birth-pains. 
Regeneration is a birth, and is, of course, attended 
with pangs, just as is seen in the physical life. 
But here the apostle is writing, not about the pain 
of a spiritual birth, but the suffering of a spiritual 
death. Crucified, not converted. Many know and 
have felt the one, but are strangers to the other. 
Crucified with Christ! How few can say this! 
Truly there is a deeper work of grace, an experi- 
ence that is now awaiting many who know, love, 
and follow Christ. 

(3) "Few there be that find it." 

Find what? Salvation? Hardly. If we say 
salvation, then do we make the Bible contradict 



58 The Better Way. 

itself; for the statement is clear and unmistakable 
about the vast number who shall be saved. Hear 
the word in Revelation, seventh chapter and ninth 
verse: " After this I beheld, and lo, a great multi- 
tude, which no man could number, of all nations, and 
kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the 
throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white 
robes, and palms in their hands." 

Were these people saved? It is said in the 
next verse they were crying: " Salvation to our 
God, and to the Lamb." Their very presence in 
Heaven shows their salvation, without the addi- 
tional proof seen in robe, palm, and shout. 

The word distinctly says the multitude was so 
great that no man could number it! 

Evidently, then, when Christ uttered the sol- 
emn words, "Few there be that find it," He could 
not be speaking of salvation, but was talking of 
"a strait gate and a narrow way." 

We firmly believe in the strait gate and in the 
narrow way — a way that is too narrow to admit a 
single sin, self-indulgence, softness, love of place, 
praise of men, and many other like things; and 
we as firmly believe, as the Savior said, that u few" 
are in it. Multitudes, who will be "saved as by 
fire," will never walk in this way. Multitudes will 



A Deeper Salvation. 59 

never enter upon it until the dying hour. We can 
count people by myriads to-day, that we believe 
will be saved at last, whose temporizing, compro- 
mising, and man-fearing lives can not for a mo- 
ment be reconciled with a life that has a strait 
gate before it and is all along a narrow way. 

It is remarkable that when Christ said, "Wide 
is the gate and broad is the way that leads to 
death," He did not say that all in that way would 
be lost. "Many," He said, were iq the " broad 
way;" but He did not say that this overwhelming 
majority, as contrasted with the "few," would be 
lost. Many in the broad way will be plucked as 
brands from the burning; many will see their mis- 
take, and forsake the road before they die; many 
who have been betrayed into the broad road for 
a while, will turn back, as did the prodigal, and 
come home. 

We leave men to wrestle as they please with the 
difficulties of the thought; but here are two great 
revealed facts, one as true as the other; viz., that 
"few" are in the "narrow way," and yet a multi- 
tude, "that no man can number," will be saved. 

We get from it the truth which we see cor- 
roborated in life. Some Christians are living very 
close to God; and some are so near the world that 



6o The Better Way. 

no one would think of putting a "strait gate" on 
their religious escutcheon, nor accuse them of walk- 
ing in a narrow way that led to life eternal. 

(4) "The abundant life." 

Christ said: "I am come that they might have 
life, and that they might have it more abundantly." 

Regeneration is life, and so converted people 
have life. It is a life of love and labor for God. 
No one ever possessed it without thankfulness to 
Heaven for the gift. 

But the italicized word "and" is a copulative 
conjunction, and means something in addition. 
This additional blessing is abundant life. This is 
what occurred at Pentecost; and under the influ- 
ence of the new grace the disciples were meta- 
morphosed, and, being abundantly filled, fairly 
overflowed, to the benefit, blessing, and salvation 
of multitudes in the first century. 

This blessing of abundant life is the privilege 
still of God's people. Peter said on that day to 
the multitude: "The promise is unto you and 
your children, and to them that are afar off." It 
is now offered in the nineteenth century, and 
thank God, is being received. The man is cer- 
tainly blind who has not seen the two religious 
characters — one with life ; the other having it more 



A Deeper Salvation. 6i 

abundantly. When questioned upon the subject, 
both say they were the gifts of God, and were 
received instantaneously ; the abundant experience 
coming after regeneration, which the first gift of 
God to the soul. 

(5) The inward revelation. 

Paul speaks of it in Galatians i, 16, where he 
says, it pleased God " to reveal His Son in me." 

The first revelation Paul had was on the road to 
Damascus ; and when struck down upon the ground 
he had an exterior vision of Christ. It was not 
a view of Christ within, but Christ without. Paul 
said, I saw Him in a glory that no man could ap- 
proach unto. This was an outward revelation. 
Afterwards came the inward revelation, when it 
pleased God, he said, to " reveal His Son in me." 

This is what is promised to the believer in 
John xiv, 23, where the Savior says He will come 
in and take up His abode in our hearts. This is 
what Paul wrote about in Colossians i, 26, 27 : 
11 The mystery hid for ages, but now made manifest 
to His saints, which is Christ in you." Again it 
appears in Galatians iv, 19 : " My little children, 
of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be 
formed in you." Christ revealed to us as our 
Savior is one thing, and Christ revealed in us as 



62 The Better Way. 

the Indweller and Sanctifier is another. This is the 
mystery that is now being declared to the saints 
(God's people), that the Savior will, upon compli- 
ance with conditions, cease to make us visits, and 
will come in and take up His abode in us. 

The reader will remember that, after the Tem- 
ple was built and completed, the priests, Levites 
and all, withdrew, and then suddenly the glory of 
the Lord filled it, and the Shekinah after that was 
always present. 

We are the temple of the Lord, and after being 
emptied, cleansed, swept, garnished, and after a 
solemn waiting before and on God, suddenly He 
w r ill come into us as a glorious abiding presence. 

A very superior Christian lady was seeking the 
blessing of sanctification at the altar in a California 
city during one of our meetings. She had been 
instructed what to do, and had obeyed. All was 
on the altar ; she was believing that the altar sanc- 
tified the gift, and stood looking upward as if 
watching for the descent of the blessing. The 
writer felt moved to say to her: u My sister, look in 
your heart, and tell me what you see." She closed 
her eyes, introverted the gaze, and in the next in- 
stant opened them, with a flash of joy in her face, 
and a rapturous cry that we can never forget: 



A Deeper Salvation. 63 

"O, He has come! Christ is in there!" Then 
followed for nearly a half hour a torrent of spiritual 
eloquence from her lips as she u prophesied " before 
a spellbound audience. Months afterward we met 
her in another city, when, with a look and smile of 
unutterable rest, she said: " He is still in there." 
Speaking of it afterwards, she said: " When you 
told me to look within, I did, and the instant I did 
so I saw the Savior, and O ! He did so smile upon 
me ; and now, whenever I look within, there He is 
still, and always with the same sweet smile." This 
woman was a regenerated woman at the time, and 
she obtained something she never had before. She, 
with Paul, could say: " It pleased God, who called 
me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me." Thank 
God for the inward revelation ! Not all have it. 
We can tell it by the faces of the people. Such a 
secret possessed by the soul could not but flash in 
the countenance, gleam in the eye, and ring in the 
voice. 

(6) " Running for a prize." 

Some people are evidently Christians to escape 
hell. They are running for eternal life. Salvation 
with them is getting to heaven at last. 

There are others who, like Paul, are " pressing 
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling 



64 The Better Way. 

of God in Christ Jesus." The mark is holiness, 
the prize is that peculiar glory and exaltation that 
comes to those who crave perfect likeness to their 
Savior, and who count all things loss that they 
might win Christ. 

It is quite a different thing, and will make a 
great difference both here and hereafter between 
the man who is trying simply to gain Heaven and 
the man who is trying to be heavenly before he 
reaches Heaven. 

This last individual has a deeper salvation. All 
can see it. There is no economizing on the soul 
and God-ward side ; he is investing heavily in 
prayer, gifts, substance, and labors for returns in 
eternity. He is not shirking duty, nor the pain 
or shame that comes in the path of duty. The 
perfunctory spirit seems not to be in him at all. 
The breath of a three hours > prayer stains the wall, 
as was the case of John Fletcher. He feels the 
presence of God everywhere, and carries it every- 
where. His religious life seems to be a holy joy 
and passion. Here is no idler nor mechanical per- 
former of duty. But the spectacle to angels and 
men is that of a man pressing to a mark for a 
prize ; one who is running, not from a wrath to 
come, but for a joy and crown and throne, and for 



A Deeper Salvation. 65 

the smile of God which awaits all such heavenly 
racers. 

(7) "Election." 

This word is one that has been misunderstood 
and abused, and harm has been made to come of 
it through meanings attributed that it did not 
really possess. There can be no election of salva- 
tion made irrespective of one's volition, faith, char- 
acter, and obedience. Men are not elected uncon- 
ditionally to Heaven, no matter what they do or 
do not do. 

And yet, leaving this out, there is such a word, 
and it does mean something particularly sweet and 
blessed to the child of God. 

The word means chosen. Applied to political 
life, we say that a man has been chosen Governor 
or President by the ballots of the people. In a 
word, he was elected. 

It is one thing to be nominated, and it is a 
great thing. The man is by nomination running 
for the high office of Chief Magistrate of the Nation. 
It is, however, another thing altogether to be 
elected. We judge that Mr. Cleveland slept de- 
lightfully well when all the votes were in and he 
heard that he was elected. 

The inauguration still remained. That was 

5 



66 The Better Way. 

yet to take place, but created no anxiety. He 
could afford to wait for that with great com- 
posure. It was a cerrtain thing, and bound to be. 
Preparations were being made already in the Cap- 
ital City for the reception of the elected nominee. 
What a time of pleasant anticipation on his part 
until the day arrived ! And what a day it was 
when it finally came, wdth its bands of music, flut- 
tering banners, battalions of soldiers, and cheering 
and welcoming multitudes ! 

We have a feeling in regeneration, that while 
we have a title to Heaven, we are nominated fcr a 
throne and crown. The nominated feeling is one 
of considerable anxiety. The regenerated man 
knows well the nominated experience. A sense of 
uncertainty is often in him mingled with apprehen- 
sion. All the ballots are not yet in. The State 
of Inbred Sin throws in a heavy and dark vote 
against him. He fears sometimes he will never be 
elected. The old Methodist hymn comes up : 

" I wonder, Xord, if I '11 ever get to Heaven, 
To the New Jerusalem." 

But at last, through a perfect consecration and 
faith, he is elected. Something happens that 
makes him know it is so. It is not salvation that 
has come for the first time ; nor is it the witness of 



A Deeper Salvation. 67 

the Spirit. It is a work wrought in the soul, and 
testified to by the Divine Worker, that is different 
from pardon, and that fills the heart with a joy that 
is deeper, and transcends the other as the joy of 
the elected candidate rises above the gladness of 
the nominated man. 

Then comes at once a settled peace, a quiet 
joy to the soul, that can never be understood by 
the regenerated man until he knows the distinct 
blessing of entire sanctification. He is elected. 
The votes of Inbred Sin have been cast out. He 
is elected. Every bell in his soul is ringing out 
the joyful tidings, and how he does now rest and 
eat and drink in the spiritual life ! 

One thing only now remains to take place, and 
that is the inauguration. The Capital City of the 
universe is already preparing for it. The man- 
sions are being built, the crowns and throne are 
ready, the banners of salvation are waving, the 
palms have been prepared, the boulevards are 
open. The angelic host and inhabitants of the 
Golden City are anxiously awaiting the time when 
the march upward from the earth shall commence, 
and the blood-washed, Spirit-purified, white-robed 
throng shall enter the gates into the city, to sit 
down upon seats of eternal honor and glory. Christ 



68 The Better Way. 

shall lead them; the red and white banners of jus- 
tification and holiness shall wave over them. They 
gave up all for Jesus. They lived and died for 
Him. They elected Him out of all beings as their 
chief joy and all in all, and He has now elected 
them, and this is the inauguration-day. 

What a day it will be ! What a time of prais- 
ing, shouting, and rejoicing, like the sound of 
many waters and mighty thunders ! What a wav- 
ing of palms, what a welcoming on the part of 
Heaven, and what glory and reward at last to those 
who fought the good fight and kept the faith! 

May we all be there on that day ! 



CHAPTER XII. 
A GREATER PRIVILEGE. 

THE Savior speaks of the first in John iii, 3 : 
" Except a man be born again, he can not see 
the kingdom of God." 

The greater privilege is declared in Hebrews 
xii, 14: "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, 
without which no man shall see the Lord." One 
is to see the kingdom ; the other, to behold the 
King. 

A difference is taught here, or we are com- 
pelled to say that language as a means of con- 
veying truth can not be relied on ; or, worse still, 
that the Spirit is to be convicted of falsity for in- 
spiring speeches that have no meaning in them. 

Let the reader bear in mind that the question 
of salvation is not touched on here, but some pe- 
culiar and superior privilege in the spiritual world. 

It is one thing to see a kingdom ; it is another 
thing altogether to see the king of that kingdom. 
The writer, several years ago, saw England ; but 
he did not see the queen. If the first would be 

69 



70 The Better Way. 

considered by some as a blessing, the latter would 
certainly be a second blessing, in the line of sight- 
seeing. 

The Bible says that we must be born again to 
see the kingdom of God. The same Bible says 
that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. 
The Revised Version says: "The sanctification 
without which no man shall see the Lord." 

Evidently here is not the question of salvation 
sprung, but the fact of some peculiar and exalted 
privilege. 

A point that we would make is, that we ought 
not to allow prejudice, preconceived notions, the 
inconsistencies — fancied or real — of people claim- 
ing sanctification, to cheat us out of this heavenly 
grace and privilege. Our soul's good here, and 
future exalted state, should cause us to quickly set- 
tle this question, and, in the face of all difficulties 
and every opposing influence, to seek to know the 
Lord in the profoundest way. 

In the Beatitudes, the Lord says: "Blessed are 
the pure in heart : for they shall see God." This 
verse, and the corresponding one in Hebrews, un- 
doubtedly refer to the same thing. A vision of 
God is promised to the purified and sanctified. 

Can any one believe that Christ would bless a 



A Greater Privilege. 71 

class of people who do not exist? Then, if so, He 
would utter an absurdity in virtually saying : 
14 Blessed are a class of people that never were 
and never can be." Evidently there must be some 
who are pure in heart. 

Now comes the question home to each con- 
verted man: "Did regeneration make you pure?" 
And, as a regenerated man, has he a pure heart 
now? The Bible says not, the Methodist stand- 
ards say not, and the universal experience of the 
Christian world say not. 

Then, according to this, there are found to be 
two classes of Christians in the world : those who 
feel their hearts are not pure ; and those whom 
Christ calls blessed because they are pure. 

The greater privilege promised the latter is, 
that they shall see God. 

What is it to see God ? There are several an- 
swers to this question. 

First. Let us say, can a man be said to see a 
mountain when he only beholds a limb or shoul- 
der, or even the half of it? So, as a justified 
man, and knowing the Lord only as a Pardoner 
and Regenerator, can he be said to have seen 
God? He has seen Him as the Pardoner and 
Savior from personal sins ; but is that all the Lord 



72 The Better Way. 

can do ? Has He not a profounder work, a still 
deeper grace, for us? Can He not sanctify? 

Moses wanted to see "all of God's goodness." 
He had known a part before ; but, unsatisfied and 
hungry, he waits on the Lord in the mount, and 
the Lord showed him all His goodness. 

The man with simply a justified experience, 
has not felt all that God has for him : has received 
only a part of the " double cure;" 

To get a pure heart is to see, feel, and enjoy 
God as never before. It is now not a partial re- 
demption, but a whole salvation, that fills him ; 
not simply a Forgiver is Christ, but a Sanctifier as 
well. He sees the Lord. 

Second. This seeing the Lord may refer to a 
vision of Himself in the heart. We shall never 
cease to bear in memory the glad cry of a woman 
who, upon receiving the blessing, w^as told to look 
in her heart, and immediately cried out with a 
voice that thrilled every hearer: " O, Christ is 
there S" 

Third. Seeing God may refer to His image in 
the countenance of the purified. Nothing has more 
deeply impressed the writer than the peculiar look 
that comes into the faces of the sanctified immedi- 
ately after the reception of the blessing. The 



A Greater Privilege. 73 

wrinkled front disappears; the sour, anxious, care- 
worn expression vanishes ; the lines of the coun- 
tenance are softened ; a brightness is brought out, 
a sweetness gathers about the mouth and settles 
in the eyes. The set smile born of a soul at rest, 
and a conscious indwelling Christ, makes a face not 
to be forgotten. The writer can tell the sanctified 
in an instant. Just a glance reveals Christ in their 
faces. Again the L,ord is seen. 

Fourth. Seeing God may refer to His recogni- 
tion in the affairs of life. How hidden He is to 
some of His people ! How hard to recognize Him 
in dark days and time of sorrow ! But there is a 
clarified vision that comes from a pure heart, that 
sees the Lord at all times and everywhere. In the 
cloud, in the storm, or robed in a black mantle, 
yet the pure heart recognizes Him instantly with- 
out a moment's hesitation. 

Fifth. Seeing God may refer to his return on 
earth. Some close students of the Bible say there 
is a coming of Christ for His bride, that precedes 
by a thousand years His coming to judge the world. 
That not all will see Him. Not all will go into the 
great supper with Him at that time. Some of the 
virgins that had oil and lamps will not see the 
Bridegroom at all. 



74 The Better Way. 

There is a day coming of Christ when every 
eye shall see Him ; but there is a midnight com- 
ing that is going to astonish and amaze many in 
the Church. In the day coming, all will be taken, 
good and bad alike. In the other coming, the 
Bible says, " one shall be taken, and the other left." 
Two women will be grinding at the mill ; two will 
be in a bed; one shall be taken, and the other left. 
Those that are ready to meet Christ will be caught 
up and away from the "tribulation" that is to reign 
on earth, and that precedes the final judgment. 
L,et us live so as to see the Bridegroom when He 
comes ! 

Sixth. Seeing the Lord may refer to some pecul- 
iar and exalted privilege in Heaven. It may mean 
a nearness to the Throne, a knowledge of God, a 
vision of the King, that all may not have who are 
in Heaven. L,et us run no risk in this matter. 
Salvation is one thing; privilege and honor is 
another. Let us strive for purity, that we may see 
and enjoy all of God that is possible for a finite 
being in this world and the world to come. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE BETTER RESURRECTION. 

IN Hebrews xi, 35, we are told that certain per- 
sons endured certain things, that they might 
obtain a Better Resurrection. 

If there is such a thing as degrees of compar- 
ison, and if there is to be any dependence placed 
upon the construction of language, then, according 
to this expression " better,' ' there must be a good 
resurrection. 

No one will admit for a moment that the resur- 
rection of the wicked is a good one. On the con- 
trary, we have the Word of God stating that it is 
one of " shame and everlasting contempt." 

So here we have three types or grades of resur- 
rection — bad, good, and better. 

Should one, in a critical spirit, ask where is the 
best resurrection, and thus seek to cast ridicule upon 
the thought, we would calmly point to that of the 
Son of God. Here, as in all other things, He out- 
ranks and towers above us all. 

We are told in the Word of God that the good 

75 



76 The Better Way. 

and bad alike will be raised from their graves on the 
morning of the last day. At the voice of the Son 
of God they that sleep in the dust will come forth, 
some to eternal life and glory, and some to shame 
and everlasting contempt. This is what is called 
the General Resurrection. 

Where will we find the Better Resurrection? 
Let the reader turn to Revelation xx, 4, 5, 6, and 
see for himself: "And they lived and reigned with 
Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead 
lived not again until the thousand years were fin- 
ished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and 
holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection ; 
on such the second death has no power; but they 
shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall 
reign with Him a thousand years." 

The First Resurrection takes place a thousand 
years before the General Resurrection, and is seen 
at a glance to be the Better Resurrection. 

This is the resurrection that St. Paul talks 
about in Philippians iii, 11, 12 : "If by any means 
I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 
Not as though I had already attained, either were 
already perfect.'' 

Many have quoted these words to prove that 
Paul never had the blessing of Christian perfection, 



The Better Resurrection. 77 

when he is not speaking of that grace at all, bnt 
of the glory of a peculiar resurrection. 

But, some one says, Why should he be strain- 
ing after a resurrection, when we all shall be raised, 
no matter what we do ? 

In answer, let the reader notice that it is not 
the General Resurrection that Paul is speaking of 
and saying that he is laboring for, but a very re- 
markable resurrection ! Not a resurrection in 
common with all the dead, but one from among or 
out from the dead. The Revised Version brings 
out the meaning in the translation of the over- 
looked or unemphasized ix in the Greek. 

This, by the way, is the peculiar description of 
the resurrection of the Savior : Not raised with the 
dead, bnt from the dead ! 

There is a resurrection of a certain band of the 
Lord's followers that takes place a thousand years 
before the General Resurrection, and when they 
are raised they will be taken from the midst of 
vast multitudes who will slumber on until the last 
day. So the First Resurrection will be one "out 
from among the dead.'' 

Well might Paul say he " pressed' ! forward for 
such a prize, and exhorted "that as many of us as 
be perfect, be thus minded" 



78 The Better Way. 

The writer does not know how the reader is 
"minded;" but he can speak for himself in great 
certainty that he does not want to lie in the ground 
any longer than is necessary; that he wants to 
come forth from the grave as soon as possible ; and 
if there is any grace or blessing in the spiritual 
lite that will bring about this earlier resurrection, 
he would have it at any cost and in the face of every 
opposition. 

What a luxury it would be to get up a thousand 
years ahead of the general time, and stand on one's 
own grave, and shout victory in the face of the 
devil ! What an experience to read the inscription 
on one's own tombstone, and walk among the 
graves of myriads who slumber on until the sound 
of the last trumpet ! What a triumph over the 
adversary, who brought death into the world, to 
show him that the grave could not hold you ; but 
that everlasting life had commenced in the very 
world which Satan had undulated with graves and 
whitened with bones and tombstones ! 

Now the question arises, Who are they who are 
thus honored ? 

In this matter we are not left to conjecture ; 
but the Scripture states plainly: "Blessed and holy 
is he that hath part in the first resurrection." 



The Better Resurrection. 79 

The word "holy" is the same that in other 
places is translated " sanctify." The two as trans- 
lated come from the same Greek word, so that the 
verse as truly reads: " Blessed and sanctified is he 
that hath part in the first resurrection." As the 
honest and wise child of God would read this, he 
would at once say, If I am not sanctified, then let 
me at once be. I must be holy, no matter what 
may be the cost. 

The fact is, we can not afford to allow preju- 
dice, man-fear, or anything else, keep us from a 
grace or blessing that is to usher us into the su- 
perior joys and glories of an early rising from 
among the dead. O, how some of us long for the 
time when we shall stand upon our graves, and 
shout and rejoice in the face of the devil, who in- 
troduced death into the world, but who will then 
see the power of death overcome and destroyed in 
the mightier strength of the Son of God! 

The holy shall rise a thousand years before the 
morning of the General Resurrection. Let all of 
us see to it that we obtain and retain holy hearts ! 

In the fifth verse we read that John saw " the 
souls of them that were beheaded for the witness 
of Jesus and for the Word of God," having part 
in the first resurrection. 



80 The Better Way. 

The question arises, Suppose that a man should 
have been burned alive for Christ, or torn to pieces 
by instruments of cruelty, would he sleep on while 
the one beheaded shall be raised? A moment's 
thought will show us that the meaning desired to 
be conveyed is simply that the one who gives up 
life for Christ shall be thus honored. 

In all ages men have had to suffer for the wit- 
ness of Jesus and the Word % of God. As the cen- 
turies roll on and Christian teaching becomes crys- 
tallized in public sentiment and law, our heads 
are protected from the decapitating ax, and our 
lives are safe, but the hatred to the " witnessing" 
and "testifying" does not change. The spirit of 
persecution is not gone, but simply controlled and 
held down by certain forces. 

This hate is not allowed to cut off heads, put 
people on the rack or in prison, but it still waits 
to strike, and does strike whenever it is allowed. 
There is an ecclesiastical power that, when it 
comes down on an offender, sounds exactly like the 
executioner's ax as it fell once upon the neck of a 
victim. The letter written, the public censure, the 
open threat, the removal and degradation from 
office or position in the Church, has a sound about 



The Better Resurrection. Si 

it that is wonderfully like the sickening "thud" 
heard on the block in the Dark Ages. 

A certain dignitary on the cars, in reply to 
the question of a lady as to where he was going, 
said, " To crush out the holiness movement 
in ," naming a large Western city. 

A preacher who had been blessed with a mar- 
velous revival, that had resulted in hundreds of 
conversions and accessions to the Church, whose 
preaching was a witnessing for Jesus and a declar- 
ing of the Word of God as to what Christ could do, 
was sent promptly from a prominent to a broken- 
down appointment. 

A physician, writing to the author, said : "They 
[that is, preacher and stewards] are about to turn 
me out of the Church for saying that Christ has 
sanctified my soul. What shall I do?" Our reply 
was : " Do nothing ; let them turn you out, and 
bear it patiently, trusting all to God." They turned 
him out ! 

Twenty members of a certain denomination 
(not Methodist) were expelled from their Church 
for no other reason except that they testified to the 
power of Christ to sanctify. As they filed out of 
the church where they had worshiped God so long, 



82 The Better Way. 

one of them, an elderly woman, stopped, and look- 
ing back at the Church court, said, as she solemnly 
pointed upward: "You can take our names from 
your books here, but you can not remove them from 
the Book of Life up yonder !" 

All this sounds like an echo from Patmos, and 
like voices that come from " under the altar," say- 
ing : " How long, O Lord, how long !" 

Mark the similarity: "I, John, on the island 
that is called Patmos, for the Word of God and for 
the testimony of Jesus Christ." 

"And I saw under the altar the souls of them 
that were slain for the Word oi God and for the 
testimony which they held." 

How strangely and strikingly the nineteenth 
and first centuries agree ! It is impossible, to-day, 
to witness to all the work of Jesus as taught in the 
Word of God without suffering coming from it. 
Reputation is struck at, social and Church position 
is affected, salary is changed, friends fall away, 
favor is withdrawn, while Patmos is seen in broken- 
down appointments, and punishment for getting 
"on the altar" is beheld in the being placed, like 
the martyrs, "under the altar." Heads were cut 
off in those days for the full testimony and wit- 



The Better Resurrection. 83 

ness, and heads are cut off socially and ecclesias- 
tically to-day for the same offense. 

The righteous God sees all these things. He 
beholds numbers to-day, as of yore, who are willing 
to suffer the loss of all things for His sake, and 
who do so. 

His word to them is, I will repay you for it ; I 
will raise you up a thousand years before the rest 
of the dead, and you shall reign with me on the 
earth a thousand years ! 

Other descriptions follow concerning this band, 
that we merely mention without enlarging upon. 

" They worshiped not the beast." The beast 
stands for worldliness, whether in or out of the 
Church. As a certain expositor says, the Church 
is first seen as a woman running from the beast 
into the wilderness. Happy the Church that will 
thus fly from worldliness ! But afterward the beast 
reappears from the wilderness, and, wonder upon 
wonder ! the woman who fled from before it is now 
seen sitting upon its back, clothed in scarlet ! The 
scarlet dress declares the harlot. The flying 
woman has made peace with the beast, and is now 
a spiritual harlot ! This has been the dreadful 
spectacle beheld by Heaven and earth, and a sight 



84 The Better Way. 

not confined to the Catholic Church, but is beheld 
in the Protestant as well. But in face of this en- 
croaching spirit of worldliness that we have seen in 
pulpit, pew, choir, financial methods, and amuse- 
ment features in the Church, there is a band of men 
and women who will not bow down to this beast 
or state of affairs. Such a stand brings upon them 
social and ecclesiastical ostracism and much re- 
proach ; but the Lord says He will reward them 
fully for all these sufferings, and they shall be 
raised in the first resurrection. 

It is furthermore said of them that they are 
" priests of God and of Christ." 

The Levite existed in Old Testament times, 
and is still seen in the Christian life. He could 
not, and can not now, conduct religious service. 
Christ came to purify the "sons of Levi," and, by 
his blood, transform them into priests. This is 
what is done in sanctification. The Levite be- 
comes a priest, and the man now, whether at home 
or social circle, or at Church, can conduct religious 
worship. The writer recalls the case of a dying 
man, who wanted some one to pray for him. The 
clergyman went to his house rapidly to get his 
"Book of Prayer." The man died before he got 
back with his little form of rituals ; but, fortu- 



The Better Resurrection. 85 

nately, there happened to be a "priest of God" in 
the house, in the form of a layman, who knelt 
down by his side, and prayed with and guided the 
man's soul to the Savior. 

"They shall reign with Him a thousand years." 
These people of the First Resurrection are go- 
ing to have a blessed time. They will not only 
come forth from the grave, but shall sit upon 
thrones, and rule with Christ through the millen- 
nial glory of the world. 

May we see to it that we obtain the sanctify- 
ing blood ! It matters not if we are exiled to 
Patmos, or beheaded ecclesiastically, or cast out 
of the synagogue as altogether vile, — the compen- 
sation is overwhelming for all these sufferings. 
We will have been with the Lord in body, and 
assisted Him in the rapid conquest of the nations, 
and grown accustomed to crowns, thrones, and 
ruling, a thousand years before the trumpet of the 
archangel shall sound, and the innumerable mill- 
ions of the human race awake forever from their 
long sleep in the dust. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE ABUNDANT ENTRANCE INTO HEAVEN. 

¥ANY people are so taken up with the thought 
of getting into Heaven that the fact of there 
being a different kind of entrance or admission 
never seems to occur to them. 

A lady once told the writer that all she desired 
was to be able to get inside the gate. This speech, 
with an appearance of humility, was really one of 
unbelief, and showed utter failure to comprehend 
the marvelous privileges secured to us by the death 
of Christ. 

According to Scripture, there are two kinds of 
entrance into glory, and one is better than the 
other. 

In i Peter iv, 18, we have the following state- 
ment: "If the righteous scarcely be saved." The 
words which we italicize plainly teach an admis- 
sion, not of the best, but one attended with doubt 
and difficulty. 

Paul, in i Cor. iii, 15, speaking of a man's 
works being burned, adds: "He himself shall be 



Abundant Entrance iato Heaven. 87 

saved, yet so as by fire." The figure is certainly 
most striking. It is that of a man who is asleep 
while his house is on fire. He slumbers on, un- 
conscious of his danger. Some one runs along the 
street crying, " Fire !" The bells are tolling the 
alarm. But he hears nothing, and sleeps on, with 
flames about him and above him. Finally, a pass- 
ing friend remembers him, and, seeing the burn- 
ing building and no sign of life stirring, breaks 
open the door with a single blow of his foot, seizes 
his sleeping friend by the arm, and bids him, with 
a loud cry, to run for his life ! The man opens 
his eyes, see the fire everywhere, realizes his peril 
at a glance, does not stop to take hat, shoes, article 
of dress, watch, purse, or anything; but with one 
wild leap, clears the door just as the whole roof 
falls in with a terrible crash. He is saved as 
by fire. 

So, says the Apostle Paul, some people will be- 
hold every work burned up, but be saved them- 
selves, yet as by fire. 

Peter, however, was not talking about this class 
when he speaks of the righteous. 

To know what he means, let every justified 
man, who has carried inbred sin in his heart for 
years, confess to the existence of grave fears in 



88 The Better Way. 

that time as to whether he would finally be saved. 
He that has been repeatedly betrayed into irrita- 
bility, anger, pride, a disposition to settled dislikes, 
etc., has had enough to make him sing, with em- 
phasis and meaning, the old hymn of the colored 
people : 

" I wonder, Iyord, if I '11 ever get to Heaven !" 
There are Christians to-day that do not feel easy 
about their final salvation. If dying suddenly 
to-day, and saved, they feel it would be of the 
"scarcely-saved" order. 

Preachers, reading these words, will thoroughly 
understand what we mean. There has not been a 
pastor but has been troubled about the final salva- 
tion of some of his flock. One of these pastors — 
now a bishop — said, about a certain prominent 
member of his congregation, as he lamented the 
religious "ins and outs" of the brother, his wan- 
derings and recoveries, that it looked like a pity 
God did not kill and take him to Heaven while 
he was in or crossing the road of righteousness. 
More light we see in this remark on i Peter iv, 18: 
"If the righteous scarcely be saved." 

We feel the truth in the passage still more 
deeply after a pastoral occurrence of the following- 
character : News comes to the parsonage, one day, 



Abundant Entrance into Heaven. 89 

that Brother Blank, steward, trustee, and perhaps 
Sunday-school teacher, is very sick, and likely to 
die. The pastor promptly visits the dying-bed, 
and, to his surprise, obtains no satisfactory reply 
from the sinking man about his spiritual condi- 
tion. He is strangely reticent. There is no light 
in his face, and no response during the closing 
prayer. To direct questions as to his spiritual 
state, there is a marked evasion in reply. Full of 
concern, the pastor sends the most spiritual of his 
members to sing and pray with the brother. On 
their return, they report that he did not join in 
song or prayer, and did not request them to return; 
but said, in answer to their offer to come again, 
"that if they desired to come, he would be pleased 
to see them" — a polite speech that was felt to 
have no religious ring in it. After a week's sick- 
ness, it was whispered one afternoon that Brother 
Blank, steward, trustee, and Sunday-school teacher, 
was dead. To the anxious query, "How he died?" 
it was told that, about two hours before he passed 
away, he said he was reconciled to go. 

More light, verily, on 1 Peter iv, 18! Another 
righteous man scarcely saved ! 

A preacher once told the writer of the death of 
a very prominent preacher in our Church. The 



90 The Better Way. 

" prominent preacher " was very prominent. Many 
praised him. His hands were fnll of business for 
the Church. When he came to die, a minister 
sitting by his bedside asked him about his spiritual 
state, and was surprised to receive an evasive reply. 
He put the question in a plainer manner, and was 
this time alarmed at the answers given. He com- 
municated his uneasiness to another preacher in 
the same town, and together they visited, talked, 
and prayed with this man who had been betrayed 
into going deeper into Church- work than in the 
grace of God. Truly, Church-w T ork and ecclesias- 
tical affairs that should be and can be a blessing, 
yet can become a snare and even ruin to the soul. 
The Jewish Church was very busy, but very dead, 
when Christ came and looked upon it. He said it 
was as beautiful as a polished sepulcher, but cov- 
ered corruption and dead men's bones. 

After a few days or a week the u prominent" 
brother expressed his willingness to die. Deci- 
dedly a negative expression of that full salvation 
and joyous faith and confidence taught in the Bible. 
Think of a man becoming, after days of prayer, 
resigned to go to Heaven ! Paul longed to go. 

How the light falls on i Peter iv, 18 ! 

So much for this bare entrance into glory. 



Abundant Entrance into Heaven. 91 

There is a better one, which Peter calls the 
" abundant entrance.' ' 

In his second epistle, Peter writes that there 
are " exceeding great and precious promises, " and 
through them " we become partakers of the Divine 
nature, " having already " escaped the corruption of 
the world through lust." Here are the two works 
of grace. The man, " having escaped the corrup- 
tion of the world," is confronted by promises of a 
still higher nature, and through them becomes a 
" partaker of the Divine nature." 

To this state of grace the man adds virtue, 
knowledge, temperance, patience, and every other 
excellent grace and virtue. 

If he fails to do this, he will soon suffer loss, 
and by and by " forget that he was purged [not 
forgiven] from his old sins." 

But if he goes on abounding in the good way, 
Peter says he will " neither be barren nor unfruit- 
ful," " shall never fall," and — blessed, glorious 
privilege of grace — " an entrance shall be minis- 
tered unto you abundantly into the everlasting 
kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 

Here, any one can see, is a vivid contrast to 
what he speaks of in chapter iv, 18. 

First Peter iv, 18, describes a bare admission into 



92 The Better Way. 

Heaven; but 2 Peter i, 11, declares an abundant 
entrance into the everlasting kingdom. The first 
man was " righteous ;" the second, according to the 
statement made in the fourth verse, had received 
a second grace ; for he, through certain gracious 
promises, became a partaker of the Divine nature, 
having escaped the corruption of the world through 
lust. The first was scarcely saved, the second 
character was abundantly saved. Is there a differ- 
ence between " scarcely " and " abundantly?' J 

The writer wants an abundant entrance into 
glory. Who would not have it ? Especially since 
it is our privilege through Christ. 

L,et us hunt up the exceeding great and precious 
promises, where God says: "From all your filthi- 
ness and all your idols will I cleanse you ; and I will 
take the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will 
put my Spirit within you ;" " Tarry at Jerusalem 
until ye be endued with power from on high;" 
" For the promise is to you and your children, and 
to them that are afar off, and to as many as the 
Lord our God shall call ;" and lo ! He calls all of 
us to holiness. 

Thus shall we be prepared for abundant useful- 
ness and for the abundant entrance into Heaven. 



Abundant Entrance into Heaven. 93 

Thus went into glory one of the Northern 
Methodist preachers, who said exultantly with his 
dying breath: "I am sweeping through the gates." 

So swept in a sanctified preacher's wife of our 
acquaintance, who, when she was dying and told 
she would pass away in five minutes, looked up 
and said, "And this is death! Hallelujah !" and 
was gone. 

Somehow, if God wills, we would like to do 
our best preaching on the day of our death. We 
would like our dying bed to be a pulpit of fire ; 
its side to be an altar of salvation to others ; and 
the soul just tarrying to speak a few farewell words 
before springing up and away on its pathway be- 
yond the stars. 

There are twelve gates to the city — three on the 
north, three on the south, three on the east, and 
three on the west. Somehow we would prefer to 
enter though the center gate on the sunny south 
side. And when we are gone, may it not be said 
of us that he was simply resigned to go, but he 
longed to depart and be with Christ ? 

Elijah was not " scarcely saved," but swept 
upward with an abundant entrance into glory. 
The same chariot and horses of fire are in Heaven. 



94 The Better Way. 

May we live so that they will be sent for us, and 
as we float upward with trails of glory left in dying 
face and last speeches, may Elishas left behind 
catch up the falling glory, and so perpetuate the 
line of men who desire and shall have an abundant 
entrance into the everlasting kingdom! 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE BETTER REWARD AT THE DAY OF JUDG- 
MENT. 

TT^E once thought that the redeemed race 
entered and took rank in Heaven just 
alike. But a deeper study of the Word has long 
ago showed us our profound mistake. 

The very instinct of justice would cry out 
against such a state of things. The Judge that 
would reward alike a John Wesley and the unsac- 
rificing life of many of the Christians that we see 
around us, would show himself lacking in the first 
principles of justice. Moreover, it would be so at 
war with our own knowledge of what is right 
and just, that there would be an outcry against it 
at the Judgment. All would feel that the judges 
of our own petty courts on earth could do better 
than that. 

The Bible passage to which some cling to sup- 
port them in the monstrous error that all will be 
rewarded alike, is the parable where the laborers 
are represented as coming in at all hours, even to 

the eleventh, and the lord or owner of the vine- 

95 



96 The Better Way. 

yard is seen giving all a penny alike, whether they 
had labored six hours, three, or one, saying: "May 
I not do what I will with my own?" 

All this is plausible ; but, unfortunately for the 
quoter, this passage was not intended to teach the 
manner of rewarding in Heaven, but the intrust- 
ment and benefit of the Church to different na- 
tions on earth. The Jews had it given to them 
in the beginning of the day; the Gentiles were 
called at the eleventh hour, and lo! the same 
"penny" — L <?., the same benefits and grace — was 
given to them as to those who had borne the bur- 
den and heat of the day for centuries. 

A better parable to quote, to get at the idea of 
difference in rewards, is that of the "pounds." In 
that we see that to each of the servants was given 
a pound. So to all of us who will accept is sal- 
vation presented. But we find that one man so 
uses the gift of his master as to bring up ten 
pounds, and another appears with an increase of 
five. To the first the word is spoken, "Have thou 
authority over ten cities;" to the second, "Be thou 
over Jive cities;" to the man who buried his pound, 
there was no reward, but a taking away from him 
of what he had. 



The Better Reward. 97 

So the Lord's own words teach the fact of 
grades in reward. 

The same truth is taught again in the words : 
"They that suffer with Him shall reign with 
Him." Not all suffer for or with Christ; but 
others do. They drink a bitter cup for the gos- 
pel's sake. They endure the cross, despise the 
shame, for Christ's sake. They are made to suffer 
in many ways where multitudes of believers never 
feel a pang. The promise is, they shall reign. 
So some are on thrones, and some are not. 

Again, we have the Word: "Let no man take 
thy crown !" 

The warning here is not in reference to salva- 
tion itself, but to honor and dignity. There will 
be crowned heads in Heaven, and some without 
crowns. As in an earthly kingdom not all are 
crowned and sceptered rulers, so in the kingdom 
above. Everybody on a throne in Heaven would 
be a strange and anomalous sight. A crown is a 
reward, not salvation. Let no man take thy 
crown ! 

Still, again, the fact appears in Rev. xxii, 12: 
"Behold, I come quickly; ... to give every 
man accoiding as his work shall be." 



98 The Better Way. 

Still, again, the fact appears in Romans ii, 6 : 
"Who will render to every man according to his 
deeds;" and in 2 Cor. v, 10 : "For we must all ap- 
pear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every 
one may receive the things done in his body, ac- 
cording to that he hath done, whether it be good 
or bad." 

Still, again, the words: "And every man shall 
receive his own reward, according to his own 
labor." 

Away, then, goes the thought that we all shine 
alike in Heaven. Paul says, distinctly: "As one 
star differeth from another star in glory, so also 
shall be the resurrection of the dead." 

The author of this work made a desperate effort 
for years to level everything in Heaven; but en- 
countered so many statements and facts altogether 
irreconcilable with such a theory, that his eyes 
were opened with a great wonder to see that the 
Word taught a twofold salvation — a salvation of 
the multitude, and a salvation of kings and priests. 
In other words, that many people are saved on 
death -beds ; and many who are converted, but 
have shirked the cross; and many who have 
adopted a temporizing life, barely keeping the 
light of justification, — and these, with others, form 



The Better Reward. 99 

what John calls an " innumerable multitude,," 
They have been saved out of every kindred and 
tribe and people. We would be utterly blind not 
to see that multitudes are being saved who never 
arose above mediocrity in the Christian life. 

On the other hand, there is a salvation going 
on, side by side with that of these people, of the 
deepest character — a redemption from fear, idle- 
ness, and sin. We see them as a company of 
moral stalwarts, a Gideon's Band, who have given 
up all for Christ, and who count name, reputation, 
and life itself, naught for His sake. ' 

God, looking at them, calls them " priests and 
kings. " A priest is a conductor of religious wor- 
ship : one who labors, intercedes, and prevails for 
others. A king is one who has such power over 
self and others that God gives the real title to him. 
To apply these terms to the great body of believers 
would be such evident misnomers as to excite a 
smile. 

It is distinctly stated that those who are to 
reign with Christ in the Millennium are kings and 
priests ; and that not all God's people are kings 
and priests is known by experience, observation, 
and Divine statement. So the difference of reward 
is seen in the fact of crowns and thrones given to 



ioo The Better Way. 

some above others ; for the idea of giving a crown 
and throne to those who did not take up the cross 
and deny themselves daily, but barely got into 
Heaven through the pitying grace of God, is sim- 
ply preposterous, and manifestly opposed to all 
ideas and instincts of right and justice, and alto- 
gether contrary to the plain teaching of the Word 
of God. 

Let the reader run his eye over a multitude he 
has seen in the Church, to get full confirmation of 
mind in regard to the thought. 

The point some would make here is, that while 
it is true that works affect our reward in Heaven, 
what has that reward to do with, and how is it 
affected by, the second work of grace, or sanctifi- 
cation? 

In reply, we say that the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost, or the blessing of entire sanctification, gives 
us the grace and power to work as never before. 
It qualifies and energizes us for the work. The 
disciples, after the reception of the blessing, were 
like new men, and abounded, from that day until 
death, in the work of the Lord. 

So is it with all who receive the baptism of 
fire. The stream is up ; the zeal of the Lord's 
house eats them up ; they are constrained to go 



The Better Reward, iot 

and work ; there is a fire in their bones ; they can 
not rest, like the seraphim, day nor night, while 
they think, speak, write, and labor for the L,ord 
and the salvation of men. 

The writer was much struck with a formula he 
heard given by a minister : 

" Children are justified without faith or works. 

" Sinners are justified by faith alone. 

" Christians are justified by faith and works. 

" At the Judgment, we are justified by works 
alone. " 

To sum up : Faith alone in Christ will admit 
a soul into Heaven ; but one's station in Heaven 
is regulated by his works. 

The baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire will 
bring forth works as the sap, coursing up the tree, 
will cover it with blossoms and fruit. 

The reward is according to the works. How 
foolish to reject the blessing that qualifies and en- 
ables us to bring forth the works in abundance 
that are to regulate our reward ! 

Heaven itself is truly a reward ; but the Savior 
speaks, and says: "To sit on my right hand and 
on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given 
to them for whom it is prepared of my Father*" 

O, for the better reward! 



CHAPTER XVI. 
THE BETTER COMPANY IN HEAVEN.* 

7V CCORDING to the seventh and fourteenth 
<r^ chapters of Revelation, there are two com- 
panies of redeemed people in Heaven. The fact 
of two distinct bands is the striking thought of 
these passages of Scripture ; for while both are 
saved and in glory, yet there is a difference be- 
tween them plainly observable. 

There is no question about the identity of the 
" multitude that no man could number." These 
are evidently the vast hosts who, in life and at 
death, have believed on the Son of God and been 
saved. No man can number them, says the Word; 
and it is true. These are the regenerated, out of 
every land and kindred and tribe and . people. 
They are washed in the blood of the Lamb. 

But who and what is this other company of 
144,000? Many have hazarded opinions, and if 



*This chapter is taken from trie author's "Second Bless- 
ing in Symbol,'' to complete the argument of this book. 
102 



The Better Company in Heaven. 103 

others have done so, why may not the writer try to 
interpret, if he does so humbly and reverently. 

Some suppose that this company stand for 
those Jews who believed on Christ in the first 
century. But why confine it to the first hundred 
years ? And what is there so different in the faith 
of a Jew and a Gentile as to create this marked 
distinction we see in Heaven ? 

Some have suggested that the 144,000 stand 
for little children. They base their supposition on 
the expression that these "were not defiled with 
women." 

Two facts show up the absurdity of this idea : 
One is, that nearly one-third of the human race 
die in childhood, and as we know that children are 
saved, the 144,000 utterly fails to be a proper sym- 
bol of the magnitude of their number in glory. 
The other fact is, tliat if they are children, then, 
of course, they have not been "defiled," and to 
make this expression refer to that is to accuse the 
Holy Ghost of uttering a preposterous and need- 
less saying. 

Our own firm belief is, that the 144,000 stand 
for those who were sanctified in this life, waiting 
not for the dying hour to receive a work of grace 
which Christ stands ready and willing and able to 



io4 The Better Way. 

perform at the present moment. When we re- 
member what it costs to obtain this blessing — what 
ridicule, opposition, persecution, and ecclesiastical 
rejection it invariably entails — we are not surprised 
that the suffering ones have a distinction accorded 
them that is not granted to all who are in Heaven. 

We have made the point elsewhere that all 
believers must be sanctified before seeing the 
Lord, and that many obtain this grace only on a 
death-bed, because they heard not of it, or were 
not properly taught ; or, as is most generally the 
case, were unwilling to pay the great cost of the 
experience. 

The .question may be raised, if all of us, either 
in life or in the death hour, obtain sanctification, 
why should there be a difference existing between 
us in Heaven ? 

To this we reply that He who says that as "one 
star differeth from another star," so also shall be 
our resurrection body; and He who is to say to 
one, "Take thou authority over ten cities," and to 
another, Cl Rule thou over five cities," He is a just 
God and will do right. Moreover, let it be remem- 
bered that there is bound to be a great difference 
in the faith, life, religious character, labors, and 



The Better Company in Heaven, 105 

sacrifices of a man who sought the blessing of 
holiness at the cost of the death of self, the loss 
of all things — keeping it in face of raging devils, a 
hating world, a ridiculing and persecuting Church — 
and that man who obtains it in a dying hour. If 
any one thinks that such a life will not be accorded a 
special distinction in the world to come, he has for- 
gotten that God is just ; and needs to be reminded 
that the Scripture itself ends with a recognition of 
two grades of spiritual life in Heaven. Hear it: 
11 He that is righteous, let him be righteous still ; 
and he that is holy, let him be holy still." 

Sanctification in death gives that purity or 
holiness of heart without which no man shall see 
the Lord, but it does not make up for the life that 
could have been spent in such union and com- 
munion with God and such toil for souls as would 
have told on the world and Church forever. The 
character is crystallized at death ; the book is 
finished ; the tree lies as it falls ; we take rank in 
Heaven as we actually were in God's sight on 
earth. A faith that recognized and took Christ 
as the uttermost Savior, as a Sanctifier, as well as 
Pardoner, was bound on earth to affect the soul's 
life and development, and is bound, for the " blood's 



106 The Better Way. 

sake," to be honored and distinguished in Heaven. 
It is, after all, a distinction of grace. Christ is 
honored by it. 

With these thoughts in mind, let us see if we 
can find any signs or features about the 144,000 
that would confirm the assertion that they represent 
the sanctified. 

One is that it is a much smaller band than the 
other. The first can not be numbered, but the 
second is 144,000. This disparity has always been 
seen on earth, and it is not surprising that it should 
appear in Heaven. For some reason, comparatively 
few have accepted the grace of sanctification. In 
our Church membership, pastors report hundreds 
of regenerated members, but only a dozen or score 
of sanctified ones. In the revival it is often the 
same way ; scores are pardoned, but only a few 
are purified. This is to be accounted for partly 
through lack of instruction of the people, and 
partly because it costs more to be sanctified than 
justified. To obtain the latter a man gives up his 
sins ; to secure the former he gives up himself. 
Regeneration is a birth, while sanctification is a 
crucifixion. It is easier, both in the physical and 
spiritual world, to be born than to die. This ex- 
plains why there is a great multitude in Heaven 



The Better Company in Heaven 107 

which can not be numbered, and right in the same 
Heaven another company of 144,000. 

Some objector may say that the 144,000 is a 
very small number to describe the sanctified hosts 
of all ages. But we must bear in mind that it 
is a symbolic figure, and does not mean literally 
144,000. On the other hand, it is not to be con- 
strued as meaning an innumerable host like the 
other, because the perfect number twelve is mul- 
tiplied by another perfect number twelve, thereby 
producing the doubly perfect number 144. This 
mistake we are saved from making by observing 
that the 144,000 is contrasted in size with the 
innumerable multitude. The whole truth taught is, 
that while the 144,000 is a much smaller company 
than the innumerable multitude, it is nevertheless 
a perfect number. 

A second fact appearing is, that the 144,000 
were all "sealed." This is not said of the innu- 
merable multitude. Sealing can not be birth. A 
thing has to be born or made before it can be sealed. 
So right here appears a second work of grace. 
This is made perfectly clear in Ephesians i, 13 : 
11 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the 
word of truth, ... in whom also, after that 
ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of 



io8 The Better Way. 

promise." The emphasized words clearly show 
that there is a subsequent work of grace that is 
here called sealing. 

Webster says that to seal is to confirm, ratify, 
establish, to make fast, to keep secure or secret. 
None of these terms can be twisted into synonyms 
of the word " regeneration. " 

History teaches us that when the Roman Gov- 
ernor had sealed the tomb of our Lord, it meant 
that no one could enter. It was made inviolable. 
The Roman Government stood by and behind 
that seal. 

Daily life tells us that when one seals an en- 
velope, from that moment something is shut up 
for himself and another. It means secrecy, sa- 
credness, and peculiar ownership. The letter is 
first written, and then, sometime after, sealed. So 
God writes His law, and deposits His love in our 
hearts. He places very precious things there. 
Afterward He seals. There is a second work of 
grace that brings the soul into a sacred nearness to 
God — into a hidden and, to outsiders, a mysterious 
life. There is a holy grace that shuts one up and 
in with God. There is a delightful understanding, 
a blessed secret, between the Sealer and the sealed, 
known only to them. 



The Better Company in Heaven. 109 

God's peculiar protection and ownership is 
seen and, above all, deliciously felt in the seal. 
Who dares to tamper with a sealed letter or pack- 
age? Whereas, an open missile or bundle is a 
temptation and invitation to prying eyes and ruth- 
less fingers. 

The soul instinctively craves this second and 
finishing work of God, The Methodist Church 
acknowledges the fact in one of its celebrated 
hymns, where, after a lament over wandering, 
there is immediately added a petition : 

" Here 's my heart, O take and seal it; 
Seal it for Thy courts above." 

According to this hymn, the "sealing" comes after- 
ward. St. Paul declares the same thing: "In 
whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed." 

A third fact stated is, that they were taken 
from Israel— some from Judah, Simepn, and the 
other tribes, but all from Israel. This is deeply 
significant. It shows that the smaller band came 
out of the great multitude .; that the sanctified are 
found in and lifted from the regenerated, or God's 
Israel. 

A fourth feature of the 144,000 is God's name 
in their foreheads. This is still more striking. It 
declares a higher grade of religious experience. 



no The Better Way. 

It proclaims a manifest and unmistakable piety. 
What they were was evident to all. Their relation 
to God was the prominent and conspicuous fact of 
their lives. Certainly it is well for the cause of 
God when his people are thus easily recognized. 
It is not the case with all of his children, but it is 
invariably so with those who are genuinely sancti- 
fied. It is worthy of remark that the severe judg- 
ments and criticisms passed upon holiness people 
are in reference to their religious lives. No one 
accuses them of worldliness. As in the case of 
Daniel, the accusation is made about their wor- 
ship, their self-denials, and their God. Their up- 
rightness is the prominent thing with them : it 
shines from their faces, it is written on theit fore- 
heads. And the religious life is attacked because 
conspicuous. 

A fifth feature noticeable is their joyous and 
fresh experience. The passage under scrutiny 
says that they sung, and it was a new song. Two 
things have invariably impressed us about the holi- 
ness people: One, their gladness; and the other, 
the constant newness and freshness of their relig- 
ious life and experience. As a holy man once said 
in our hearing, " Every day is like a new conver- 
sion to my soul." They are the happiest people in 



The Better Company in Heaven. hi 

the world to-day: always singing, shouting, or 
praising God, and always having new and delight- 
ful manifestations of Divine grace. Strike them 
where and when you will, they have just found 
something wonderfully precious in the Bible, or 
Christ has revealed Himself in a blessed way to 
the heart, or in a marvelous manner in His provi- 
dence, and they are running over. They have the 
melody in the heart that Paul speaks of, and the 
"well of water" in the soul that Jesus told the 
Samaritan woman about. So who wonders at their 
gladness and spiritual freshness? 

A sixth observable fact is, that their experience 
was a peculiar one. The third verse says that no 
one could learn the song they sung but themselves. 
So the innumerable multitude, washed and saved, 
did not sing the song. Only the 144,000 could 
sing it. 

The teaching is unmistakable that there is a 
religious experience not known to all of God's 
children. It has always been so, and will be to the 
end of time. Many could not sing the song that 
the 144,000 sung. More than once the writer has 
seen regenerated people try to imitate the sancti- 
fied in their experience and rejoicing, but it was 
an evident and utter failure. The most difficult of 



ii2 The Better Way. 

things to do is to praise God, and rejoice in spirit 
and with lip, when the spirit of praise and rejoic- 
ing is not in you. In the regenerated life this re- 
joicing comes at certain wide-apart times as a 
result of much prayer or revival effort. In the 
sanctified life the inward rejoicing is a constant 
experience ; for the cause of it is indwelling and 
abiding. How easy for them at all times to praise 
God, with this unfailing melody within, and salva- 
tion, like a well of water, gushing and springing up 
in the soul all the time into everlasting life; while 
how difficult, and indeed impossible, for those to do 
so who are strangers to this work of grace! No 
one could sing the song but the 144,000. 

A seventh fact is their purity. They were not 
"defiled." Commentators, like Dr. Claike, say 
this means simply spiritual chastity. Heie are the 
pure in heart, whom Christ in his sermon calls 
"blessed." There is a grace which keeps God's 
child unspotted from the world. There are such 
people to-day. They are a peculiar people: their 
garments are kept constantly white by the blood, 
and God continually abides in them and is glori- 
fied by them. They may be a small number com- 
pared to the great mass, perhaps as 144,000 to an 
innumerable multitude ; but they exist for all that 



The Better Company in He a ven. i i 3 

in this world, and will be signally rewarded in 
Heaven. 

An eighth description reveals the fact that 
there is no guile in their mouth. 

If any one should ask me to name a distin- 
guishing trait of sanctified people, I would reply 
that their conversation is in Heaven, their lan- 
guage chaste and pure. No profane word repeated 
as having occurred in a story, no impure anecdote ; 
nothing in the conversation that would show a 
relish for or bias of mind toward anything un- 
clean ; no slander, nor abuse, nor slang, nor 
worldly fun, nor low wit. The tongue is pure, 
because the heart is clean. There is no guile in 
their mouth. 

A ninth description shows them without fault 
before God ; not without fault before men. There 
will never be a time that we will be able to meas- 
ure up to the exacting standards of men. The 
Savior Himself could not please men, and brought 
upon Himself their bitter censure. To the morally 
jaundiced eye of that period he was unlovely. But 
there is an experience where, in spite of adverse 
criticisms and disapproval in high places, you can 
still be without fault before God. Christ can do 

such a work in sanctification, that the heart is 

8 



j 14 The Better Way, 

not only made pure, but kept pure, while the soul 
tejoices in an unbroken consciousness of Divine 
approbation. The Bridegroom's affirmation to 
the soul married to Him is: " Thou art all fair, 
my love." 

A tenth description is, that they " followed the 
Lamb whithersoever He went." 

Here, in a sentence, we find that consecration, 
devotion, and perfect obedience that are the strik- 
ing features of the life of holiness. The sanctified 
man is a follower of Christ in all things and at 
all times. 

There are many Christians who will follow 
Christ, but not all the time and every where. Some 
things and places they shrink from. Some calls 
they do not heed, some crosses they will not take 
up. But the sanctified man is ready for Geth- 
semane with its loneliness, the judgment-seat of 
man with its false witnessing, and the cross with 
its shame and suffering. All that is needed is for 
Christ to lead, and they will follow. 

Does the reader see a difference between the 
two companies, or not? A mightier faith, that 
claimed and received holiness in this life, results 
in a purer life and greater deeds for God ; and 
the holy and just One who says, " according to 



The Better Company in Heaven. 115 

your faith" and according to the " deeds done in 
the body/' that Judge of perfect righteousness 
will honor the splendid royal faith that honors fully 
the blood, and there will be two companies as 
shown in Revelation. One believed in the power 
of the blood to pardon; the other, in its power to 
sanctify. One believed it could save us in sin ; 
the other, that it could save us " from sin." One 
looked for perfect salvation in the future, at death, 
or in Heaven; the other trusted for and obtained the 
full and perfect salvation as a present experience — 
now. Such a superior faith in Christ is bound to 
result in a more exalted experience and devoted 
life, and is compelled by a just God to be peculiarly 
honored in Heaven. , 

Once admit what John insists on here — that 
there are two companies in Heaven, no matter 
what has originated them — and the principle for 
which we contend is admitted. We can not con- 
ceive of anything that could so properly account 
for the existence of the two bands as the two 
different faiths, just mentioned, in the power of 
Christ's blood. 

The innumerable company believed in it for 
pardon ; the smaller company trusted it for holi- 
ness. The first looked for purity of heart to come 



n6 The Better Way. 

in the future, with the help of time and growth in 
grace ; the second, trusting in the blood alone, 
believed for and acccepted sanctification now. 

It is this second and smaller company that 
most honored Christ; and it is not surprising that 
He should be seen peculiarly honoring them in the 
day of rewards and in the kingdom of Heaven. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
THE HIGHER GRADE IN ETERNITY. 

IT is wonderful how painfully sensitive some 
Christians are at the thought of differences of 
station in Heaven. 

When, in addition to this, we show from the 
Scripture a different moral grade in the Character 
World above, and perpetuated through eternity, a 
feeling of resentment will doubtless arise in some 
minds. 

Some have asked the question, What right has 
one to classify Christians ? In reply, we say that 
Christ did it, and far more rigidly than we ever 
dreamed of doing. If the reader will study the 
first few verses of the fifteenth chapter of the 
Gospel of St. John, he will see that Christ, in 
the figure of the Vine and Branches, divides the 
Christian world into four classes ; namely, the no- 
fruit, the some-fruit, the more-fruit, and the much- 
fruit branches. All stand for just the kind of 
people we have seen in the Christian life. 

When we turn to the angelic world we find 

117 



u8 The Better Way. 

cherubim, seraphim, archangels, and angels. This 
certainly should prepare the mind for the fact of a 
higher moral grade among the redeemed of our 
race in Heaven. 

The truth is plainly taught in the last chapter 
of Revelation. 

The judgment is over; the great plain of the 
seat of trial is empty and forsaken ; the vast con- 
course of angels and men who once covered it have 
vanished, in the blue above or in the blackness 
beneath, to different worlds. St. John, in spirit, is 
left surveying the scene, and the speaker of this 
wonderful book concludes the revelation by point- 
ing the man away to the consideration of the 
destiny of the race. 

Character is now crystallized and perpetuated 
forever, without hope of change. As the tree 
falleth, so shall it lie. If it falls to the north, it 
shall lie to the north ; if it falls to the south, it 
shall lie to the south. If the soul falls hellward, 
it shall lie hellward ; if heavenward, it shall be 
heavenly forever. 

Nor is this all, for in the two worlds is seen the 
solemn fact of moral grade. The Divine hand 
points downward to the bottomless pit, and the 
word is pronounced: " He that is unjust, let him 



The Higher Grade in Eternity. 119 

be unjust still." Here is the man who neglected 
or rejected salvation, and is lost. He is an unpar- 
doned, unjustified man. Let him be unjust still. 

But there is a rank beneath that class — listen : 
"And he that is filthy, let him be filthy still." 
Here is a character darker and fouler than the 
other. Here is a man who not only refused salva- 
tion, but added all vileness of living to his unbe- 
lief. He has become filthy. Let him be filthy 
forever ! is now the word. 

After this, the hand points upward to the Para- 
dise above, and as the eye settles on the jasper- 
walled city with its white-robed inhabitants, the 
voice that divides speaks again, and says: " He 
that is righteous, let him be righteous still." Here 
is the pardoned man, the individual who was satis- 
fied simply to be saved. He, with nothing marked 
or distinguished in the line of spiritual excel- 
lence, kept justifying grace, and so enters Heaven. 
Let him be righteous still. 

But the hand points higher, and the voice 
speaks again: "And he that is holy, let him be 
holy still!" 

Here shines the character who was not satisfied 
with simply a justified life, but hungered and 
thirsted after righteousness. He panted to be holy, 



i2o The Better Way, 

and craved the full image of Christ. This world 
and all it had to offer was gladly given up that 
he might find the hidden life in God. He cheer- 
fully endured shame, suffering, and the loss of all 
things, that he might win Christ in His fullness. 
Such desires and such a life brought a peculiar 
blessing and a wondrous transformation, which 
would appear not only on earth, but in its greatest 
effulgence in Heaven; and so the voice says: "He 
that is holy, let him be holy still." 

As one rank was beneath another in hell, so one 
class is seen to tower above another in Heaven. 

Moral grade and the perpetuation of moral 
grade is seen in the contrasted words " unjust" 
and " filthy," and " righteous " and "holy." The 
first contrast is not more marked than the 
second. 

We doubt not that there is a ceaseless moral 
sinking in hell, and there is a constant spiritual 
growth and development in Heaven ; but the 
two grades remain sharply and distinctly drawn 
through all the sinking in one world and the rising 
in the other. For if the "unjust" become lower 
in hell, so does the "filthy;" and if the "right- 
eous " keep rising in Heaven, so does in like 
measure the "holy;" and the division line is ever 



The Higher Grade in Eternity. 121 

seen as between archangel and angel, and cher- 
ubim and seraphim. 

What says the Book? <c He that is righteous, 
let him be righteous still} and he that is holy, let 
him be holy still" 

Men may choose a flowery path to Heaven, they 
may shun crosses and avoid the reproach and hard- 
ship and daily dying of the true Christian life to 
which we are all called ; they may go on in a soft, 
compromising way, called " Rabbi" in the market 
places, and all men speaking well of them ; but as 
certainly as there is justice in eternity, and a just 
God on the throne, they will wake at the judgment 
to see they are " rewarded according to their works." 
They have shaped the size of their own cups of 
happiness; they have the resurrection body shining 
in a degree of glory according as they suffered and 
toiled for Christ, and in a word, that they, with all 
other men, go to the place prepared for them, be- 
cause they prepared themselves for the place. Or 
it will be said of them, as. of an individual in the 
Bible : " He went unto his own place." Truly, as 
spoken by Daniel, it .will be said of all: " Thou 
shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days." 

Who would not have the best in Heaven, and 
be nearest the throne? And what shall be thought 



122 The Better Way. 

of one who, being informed of the way that leads 
to it, the grace that prepares for it, refuses to walk 
in the one and rejects the other? 

We once read of a man who had a vision one 
night as he slept. There stood before him a 
shining being of such beauty of countenance, such 
dignity of bearing, such glory of appearance, that 
his soul almost swooned at the sight. In a little 
while the form began to fade away, and a voice 
said aloud, in his dream: "This would have been 
yourself, had you not turned aside from the will of 
God, and thus lost the grace that would thus have 
transformed you!" 

Many will feel the truth contained in that 
vision in the eternal world. There is no second 
probation. There is no other opportunity given 
us after death to sell all, take up the cross, deny 
self daily, and follow Christ. We will see our 
mistake too late. We can not come back to 
school ; for the school-house is burned up, with 
all its works. The vineyard is empty and deso- 
late ; the laborers have been called to receive their 
hire. No chance now to warn sinners, help the 
poor, visit the sick, and do the things that Christ 
commanded. The day is over; the night has come 
when no man can work. If we have " nothing 



The Higher Grade in Eternity. 123 

but leaves," if we have idled away the hours in 
dreaming or shirking toil, there is nothing to do 
now but wait for the Lord to come in, hear our 
doom, receive our pay, be it great or small, and 
take the place which has been prepared for us, 
and which, strange to say, we, by our own lives 
on earth, prepared, and in which we take posi- 
tion, the very grade declaring to the universe what 
we have been while living, and what we have done 
for man and God. 

God calls believers to holiness in the Bible as 
clearly as He does sinners to pardon. May we 
hear and heed the call! The Better Way is open 
for us that leads to peculiar honor and glory in 
Heaven. The light falls upon it. It is a beau- 
tiful way, a safe way, and a happy way. Christ 
bids us come. The Spirit says, Come. The Bride 
says, Come. Ten thousand sanctified souls, rejoic- 
ing in a clean heart, cry, Come! May every one 
that heareth come! May the reader of this vol- 
ume determine now to come ; and may we all be 
found in the way of holiness, with songs and ever- 
lasting joy, pressing on in the upward course tc 
the Jerusalem that is above ! 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

HOW TO ENTER THE BETTER WAY— MOSES' WAY. 

TTy^E trust that enough has been said to make 
the reader hungry for a deeper work of 
grace; and that the earnest query and cry of the 
heart is, "How can I enter?" 

The conditions are, consecration and faith, 
with importunate prayer. Expressed differently by 
writers inspired and non-inspired ; yet the three 
great mountain-peaks of consecration, faith, and 
prayer are seen rising above all the mists and 
clouds of language and controversy. 

Let the opposers say what they will about 
having consecrated as repenting sinners, yet all 
thoughtful men must admit that the agitated con- 
secration of a penitent sinner is one thing, and 
the calm, all-embracing devotement of self, time, 
talents, substance, wholly and forever to God, of 
the illuminated child of Heaven, is another thing 
altogether. 

The writer firmly believes that the sinner can 

not consecrate; that he has nothing but sin on 
124 



How to Enter the Better Way. 125 

hand, and how can one consecrate sin? We be- 
lieve the teaching of the Bible is, and that it is 
confirmed by life, that a sinner surrenders, and a 
Christian consecrates. 

Yet, even if the reader would not agree to this, 
it still remains that the Christian's consecration is 
much deeper, broader, richer, every way, than that 
of the sinner. This fact comes out vividly in the 
Parables of the Treasure and Pearl. There it is 
seen that the "all" (consecration) of the "way- 
farer," which purchased the field in which was the 
buried treasure, was far less than the "all" (con- 
secration) of the "merchantman," which secured 
the pearl of great price. The "all" of the way- 
farer could never have bought the pearl. 

In happy correspondence with this thought we 
notice that the Bible does not say the box of treas- 
ure was of "great price." The "pearl" outranked 
the "box." 

So it is that everywhere a perfect consecration 
faces the soul as the gateway to entire sanctifica- 
tion. All writers harmonize here. 

Let us glance at the different and, yet same way 
in which we are told to secure holiness, or the Bet- 
ter Way. 



126 The Better Way. 

MOSES' WAY. 

This is laid down in Deuteronomy xxvi, 
17, 18, and 19: 

"Thbu hast avouched the L,ord this day 

"To be thy God, 

"And to walk in His ways, 

"And to keep His statutes, and His command- 
ments, and His judgments, 

"And to hearken unto His voice." 

Here, in the 17th verse, are the four features of 
a perfect consecration: 

"The Lord shall be our God." 

No other God shall be ours. He shall rule 
and reign in heart and life. 

"We will walk in His ways." 

Not the ways of the world or men. God has 
ways for us. They are plainly laid down as to 
spirit and conduct, and illustrated by Christ. We 
promise to be found in them. 

"We will keep His statutes, commandments, 
and judgments." 

They ought to be well known — the Ten Com- 
mandments — and their amplification in more mi- 
nute commands. How can a law-breaker receive 
the blessing of sanctification? So the command- 



How to Enter the Better Way. 127 

ments touching idolatry, image- worship, light or 
profane handling of God's name, disobedience to 
parents, murder by hand or heart, adultery in act 
or look, stealing, false witnessing, and coveting, 
must be reviewed, and we must let them glow and 
sparkle again, as they once did from the finger of 
God on the table of stone. 

"And to hearken unto His voice." 

God has calls outside of the Book to special 
services and duties. There are messages He 
wishes us to deliver, warnings to speak, letters to 
write, sermons to preach, duties to perform, and 
sacrifices to make. He may want us to go in the 
pulpit in a Christian land, or to cross the sea, and 
work for Him on a foreign shore. No matter 
what, we promise to hearken unto His voice. 

All we ask is, to be sure it is His voice ; and 
He will not leave us in doubt there: "My sheep 
know My voice. " 

What is all this but a perfect consecration, and 
all mixed up with the sublimest faith? 

The result that will come from such a conse- 
cration and faith is declared in the 18th and 19th 
verses — the very blessing itself. Hear the Word : 

"And the Lord hath avouched thee this day 

"To be His peculiar people, 



128 The Better Way. 

"And that thou shouldest keep all His com- 
mandments; 

"And to make thee high above all nations, in 
praise, and in name, and in honor ; 

"And that thou mayest be an holy people unto 
the Lord thy God." 

Let the reader examine, and he will see the 
striking feature of a sanctified life plainly drawn 
in the words, 

A peculiar people. 

An obedient people ; keeping his command- 
ments. 

An exalted people ; high above others in praise, 
name, and honor. 

And a holy people. 

Let the reader notice that we first " avouch " 
the Lord to be our God; and then He "avouches 
us" to be His people. 

Of course there follows, peculiarly in the Gospel 
sense, the obedience that is the condition of keep- 
ing the light, the exaltation in praise and honor, 
and the life of holiness before God. 

This remarkable passage can no more be con- 
fined to the Jews than the promise of the Messiah. 

The writer used this passage as one of the step- 
ping stones in crossing Jordan into Canaan, 



How to Enter the Better Way. 129 

Several years afterward, in speaking to a lady 
at the altar in his church, he repeated to her the 
three verses which have been quoted above. She 
quietly said, " Repeat those words ;" and once 
more we said : 

"Thou hast avouched the Lord, this day, 

"To be thy God; 

"To walk in His ways, 

"To keep His statutes, 

"And to hearken unto His voice." 

"I will," she said, and instantly arose with the 
blessing of sanctification in her soul. With her 
consecration came an immediate accompanying 
exercise of faith, and the glory came down upon 
her and in her. So will it come upon all others 
who shall do likewise. 

9 



CHAPTER XIX, 

PAUL'S WAY. 

THIS is laid down in Romans xii, i, 2. 
"I beseech you." Regenerated people can 
not be driven into this grace. They must be 
wooed instead of threatened, and besought instead 
of abused. 

" Brethren." 

Sinners are never called brethren in the Bible. 
So the class addressed here is clearly seen. 

" Present your bodies." 

Of course the soul is in the body. If we pre- 
sent our bodies to God, in the sense used here, we 
certainly do not keep back the soul. We have 
heard of Christians who presented their souls to 
God, but kept their bodies for self-indulgence 
and even sin. But he who presents his body to 
God has already given his soul. One of the difficult 
things for the regenerated man to do is to present 
his body entirely to God. He wants his own way 
and his rest. He is disinclined to give his tongue 
at times. He likes to let his eyes rove, and his 
130 



Paul's Way. 131 

feet move in ways more pleasing to self than to 
God. So the presenting of the body is a big thing. 
It is in fact consecration ; and it is the consecra- 
tion of a Christian that is here being nrged, and 
not the repentance of a sinner. 
u A living sacrifice. " 

This proves that it is a Christian being ad- 
dressed. The sinner is a dead sacrifice. God says 
of him : " He is dead in trespasses and in sins." 
So the " living sacrifice " can not be the sinner. 
" Holy, acceptable unto the Lord." 
The sinner never comes for holiness, or as a 
holy offering, but simply for pardon. 
" Which is your reasonable service." 
What "service" can a sinner render God? 
He is in no condition to do anything of the kind 
until he is pardoned and regenerated. Sinners 
do n't serve God, but regenerated people do. 
"And be not conformed to this world." 
Here is that dying to the world in its customs, 
laws, fashions, maxims, pleasures, honors, etc., that 
rounds up and fills out the consecration that the 
apostle is urging upon the "brethren." There are 
many things that are lawful and not morally wrong 
which we have to die out to, before we can get the 
blessing of sanctification. The writer died out to 



132 The Better Way. 

lectures, the platform, secret societies, ritualisms, 
dignities, and the being called Rabbi, Rabbi, in the 
market-places. 

" But be ye transformed by the renewing of 
your mind." 

But is not this regeneration? How can it be 
when he is talking to " brethren," and the- exhorta- 
tion is not to " knock at the door" for pardon, but 
to get on the altar for sacrifice and transformation? 

Let us see where the " renewing of the mind " 
comes in. 

Paul, in writing to Titus, says : " He saved us 
by the washing of regeneration and the renewing 
of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abun- 
dantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. " 

So a full salvation is made up of two works — 
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of 
the Holy Ghost. "And " is a copulative conjunc- 
tion and means something else. Lange, the com- 
mentator, is struck with this double expression. 
In fact, it is the statement of the " double cure " 
that the hymn speaks about. 

Notice that the verse says this "renewing of 
the Holy Ghost" was "shed on us abundantly." 
The allusion is to Pentecost. Regeneration is not 
"shed," but the baptism of the Holy Ghost was; 



Paul's Way, 133 

and it was, and is, and always will be done "abun- 
dantlyo" 

So the "renewing" of Rom. xii, 2, is the renew- 
ing of Titus iii, 5, 6, and comes after regeneration. 

"That ye might prove-" — 

That is, find out — 

"What is that good and perfect and acceptable 
will of God." 

And this is the will of God, even your, sancti- 
fication. So says Paul, in 1 Thess. iv, 3. 

Only let the reader follow Paul's direction 
above, and he will obtain the transformation, the 
glorious renewing, which enables him to find out 
the perfect will of God in himself; namely, his 
sanctification. 

Does any one ask where the faith is in this 
passage? The reply is, that it is impossible to do 
the things laid down here without faith. And, as 
we have noticed in hundreds of instances, the in- 
stant a Christian makes the complete consecration, 
there is felt an instantaneous power to believe. 
And, as we expressed the fact in another volume, 
the blossom of faith comes forth at once from the 
end of a perfect consecration. Then, after that, 
the world sees the heavy fruitage on what had been 
before a mere stick or rod. 



CHAPTER XX. 
THE SAVIOR'S WAY. 

IF the limits of this volume would permit, we 
would show that no matter what book in the 
Bible, or what inspired writer therein, mentions 
the manner of the obtainment of a pure heart, 
that the conditions in every instance are just the 
same. They are always consecration and faith. 

Some writers are more explicit than others ; 
some emphasize one step more than the other; 
and others, while recognizing the two steps, make 
prayer a prominent factor, — all of which is allow- 
able, and is understood by the spiritual reader. 

It is certainly most strengthening to the faith 
to see Moses, Paul, James, and John, all agree as 
to these steps. 

In addition, however, to these inspired author- 
ities, we mention 

THE SAVIOR'S WAY. 

More than once He showed the entrance into 

this blessed experience. 

Once in John xiv, 23, where He says: "If a 
134 



The Savior's Way, 135 

man love Me, he will keep my words : and my 
Father will love him, and we will come unto him, 
and make our abode with him." 

Here is a distinct blessing from pardon ; for it 
is promised to a man who loves Christ and keeps 
His words. 

The blessing promised is the indwelling of 
Christ in the soul — not for a day, but for all time : 
He will take up His permanent abode in the heart. 

The condition is briefly put, as is the custom of 
Scripture ; and that condition is, a loving and com- 
plete obedience to the Lord. This is only another 
way of expressing the idea of a perfect conse- 
cration. 

Let a regenerated man who is sighing for the 
higher grace, determine on a full obedience to 
God ; let him say, I will hearken to His voice in 
every particular, — and what is that, when exam- 
ined, but a perfect consecration? Let the reader 
try it, and find out for himself. 

Well did John say: " Whoso keepeth His word, 
in him verily is the love of God perfected ; and 
again: "If we walk in the light, as He is in the 
light, we have fellowship one with another, and" 
(right there, while in the light, and rejoicing in 
the fellowship of Christians — right there the won- 



136 The Better Way. 

drous grace takes place) "the blood of Jesus Christ, 
His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 

But the conditions of entrance into the Better 
Way are still more clearly put by the Savior in 
Matthew xi, 29: "Take my yoke upon you, and 
learn of Me; . . . and ye shall find rest unto 
your souls." 

In this paragraph of three verses, from which 
the verse quoted is taken, there are two rests men- 
tioned. One is "given;" the other is said to be 
"found." One is received before taking the yoke; 
the other, after putting it on. To the class ob- 
taining the first rest, Christ says, "Come unto Me;" 
but to the other class, who are to obtain the second 
rest, He gives a different direction altogether. 

Let the reader observe that it is after the re- 
ception of the second rest that Christ says that " His 
yoke is easy, and His burden is light." This is the 
joyful experience of all who receive the blessing. 

The two conditions of consecration and faith 
are remarkably clear in the 29th verse: 

"Take my yoke upon you." 

Here is consecration, and we know of no more 
striking figure to express a complete consecration 
and yielding up of self than the one employed here. 

An ox is one thing, but a yoked-up ox is an- 



The Savior's Way. 137 

other. Many oxen object to the last condition. 
They do n't regret belonging to a certain man, but 
there is a disinclination to being "yoked up;" for 
from the instant that the bow is shot into the yoke, 
and the key slipped in the bow, the ox is com- 
pletely at the will- of his master. He has now to 
pull or stop as the • master says. He must go to 
the right or to the left according to the sound of 
the owner's voice, or to the touch of the guiding 
hand or lash of whip. The will of the ox has 
passed over to the will of the owner. 

Consecration is a yoking up. Not all Christians 
like it. They want to be the Lord's unyoked peo- 
ple. They are glad to believe and say they belong 
to Christ, but they want their will and way in 
many things. They tremble at the thought of a 
perfect consecration. God's will might entail great 
loss and suffering upon them, and lead them into 
very great trials and sacrifices. Thus they reason. 
So when we call them to the altar and beg for their 
complete abandonment to the Lord, they grow 
fearful; and just as we begin to fix the yoke, and 
prepare to place the bow and put in the key, we 
have seen them suddenly start back, mentally 
regret the whole thing, and come back no more to 
the altar, which is the yoking-up place. 



138 The Better Way, 

What a strange fear this is, that the yoke of 
Christ would prove burdensome ! What an unnat- 
ural dread to make a full consecration of ourselves 
to God, which is our reasonable service ! 

Some of us obeyed the voice of the Savior, 
and bowed the neck low, and had the yoke fastened 
Upon us and locked. The instant we did it we 
found that the yoke was a wing to lift us up instead 
of a load to drag us down. How it lifted us then, 
and how it lifts us now ! The devil came nearly 
deceiving us with the suggestion it was heavy 
and galling, in face of the opposite statement of 
Christ that it was easy. 

Bow down your head, my reader, and let Christ's 
yoke of doctrine and service come upon you. You 
will never lament it, but will only sorrow, when 
the blessing comes, that you had not done so 
before. 

Second comes the step of faith : u Learn of 
me," Here is faith. Do n't look to self, others, 
or even to your consecration, but fix your eyes at 
once on Christ. 

If a man, having taken the yoke, will imme- 
diately turn his eyes to the Savior, the blessing 
will come. 

" I^earn of me." 



The Savior's Way. 139 

Do n't ask the tobacco-using colonel down-town 
if he believes in sanctification. Of course he do n't, 
with such an unclean habit. 

Do n't ask the gossipy and fussy female mem- 
ber of the Church, with the sharp tongue, no 
matter if she is head of half of the societies in the 
Church. 

Why go to people whose very faces and tongues 
declare that they are strangers to the great grace ? 
" Learn of me," said the Lord. 

A young preacher in our Church asked a prom- 
inent minister if he believed in sanctification as a 
second work of grace. The brother, in reply, 
removed a cigar from his mouth, and blowing the 
smoke in the air, said, with a deep, guttural accent, 
u No, sir." That, of course, settled it for the young 
preacher, but fortunately did not for an increas- 
ingly great multitude. Tobacco-smoke is a great 
obscurer. It is dense enough to hide some blessed 
things in the spiritual life, and we have noticed 
that it invariably hides the Holy of Holies, or 
"The Better Way," from some people. What 
a mistake the young man made ! Christ said : 
" Learn of me." It would have been better for 
his soul if he had gone to Jesus in prayer and 
faith. 



140 The Better Way. 

Would Christ have taught him ? He has taught 
many, and led them who believed " into His rest." 

To the question, Lord, is there such a blessing 
for my soul ? the Divine voice would have replied : 
V Father, sanctify them through Thy truth ; and 
not these only, but all who shall believe on Me 
through their word." 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE METHODIST CHURCH WAY. 

THIS is made plain, regularly at every Annual 
Conference, to the preachers, by four ques- 
tions propounded by the bishop to ministerial ap- 
plicants for admission into the Conference. 

The Methodist Church, knowing the privilege 
of the soul, and determining to protect her people 
from a lifeless pulpit, and save herself from form- 
ality and spiritual death, fixed these questions as 
an inner gateway before something deeper and 
richer than justification. 

No traveling preacher is allowed to dodge these 
questions. He may in after years try to invest 
them with shades of meaning which he well knows 
would never have been allowed at the time of his 
candidacy, and if stated then would have led to his 
rejection. 

It will be a sad day for Methodism and for the 

outside world, which she is called to save, when 

these questions are dropped from the Discipline, or 

shall be so ingeniously twisted as to mean nothing. 

141 



142 The Better Way. 

There are just four questions, and they cover 
the ground of a second work of grace, its subse- 
quency to conversion, and the method of obtaining 
the blessing. 

First : " Have you faith in Christ?" 

This question had been asked indeed before, 
at the Quarterly Conference ; but we are thank- 
ful that it is uttered again at this juncture, as it 
proves the fact of the regenerated condition of the 
preacher, and shows that anything else that may 
be described in the following three questions as 
something yet to come can not be anything but 
a second grace or blessing. 

If the young preacher replied here that he had 
not faith in Christ, at once the whole proceedings in 
his case would stop, and he would have to retire. 

The second question is: "Are you going on to 
perfection?" 

Not growing, but going. 

Going is one thing ; growing, an entirely dif- 
ferent thing. The writer does not grow from one 
city to another in his travels. If he did, no hotel 
could entertain him : there would be no room to 
dispose of his body. Instead of growing to a 
place, he gets on the cars, and does some going. 

" L<et us go on to perfection," said Paul. Some- 



The Methodist Church Way. 143 

thing to be reached is so clearly brought out by 
the expression that it possesses a locality meaning. 

If merely a growth or unfolding is meant here, 
as some contend, then it makes the bishop utter a 
very silly thing in requiring a solemn vow froin 
individuals to go on to what must inevitably come 
to them of itself. If a mere development and 
maturing of Christian graces and powers are re- 
ferred to, the question would have to be altered. 
Indeed, what need to require an oath at all, if sim- 
ply development is meant ; for maturity comes 
from the flight of years and observance of the 
means of grace. 

The question is directed to the obtainment of 
purity, not maturity. 

Are you going on to perfection? is the bishop's 
question ; and it shows how the Methodist Church 
has caught the idea of the apostle, and has recog- 
nized the character of the blessing. It is some- 
thing, not to be grown into, but gone to. It is not 
an evolution, but an obtainment ; not a blessing 
coming out of us, but one getting into us. 

One of our bishops' explanation of this ques- 
tion at a recent Annual Conference must have ex- 
cited wonder over all the Church. He said the 
question, "Are you going on to perfection?" was 



144 The Better Way. 

to be explained by a hyperbole so great that the 
lines drawn from it would forever approach each 
other, but never come together. 

According to this explanation, the bishop would 
have the Church ask the following strange ques- 
tion : " Are you going on to something that, in the 
nature of things, you can never expect to 
reach ?" 

Unfortunately for the bishop's position, the 
verse in Hebrews, "Let us go on to perfection, " 
according to Dr. Clarke, is better translated, "Let 
us be borne on immediately unto perfection." 

The Methodist Church has made no mistake in 
this question. The words are wonderfully Scrip- 
tural and correct: "Go," not grow; "to," not 
toward. 

The third question is: "Do you expect to be 
made perfect in love in this life?" 

Made perfect, not grow perfect, nor developed. 
Not an evolution, but a creation. 

And in this life, not at death, or in purgatory; 
but made perfect in love in this life. 

Let the reader glance back, and re-read the 
first question that settles the fact of the preacher's 
acceptance with God ; then notice this third ques- 
tion, Do you expect to be made perfect in love in 



The Methodist Church Way. 145 

this life? What on earth is this but a second 
work of grace? 

The fact of the existence of faith and love in 
the man is first admitted ; but here is something 
still to be experienced which the Methodist Church 
calls the perfecting of love, or Christian perfection. 

It stands to reason that if the possession of 
love for God constitutes an experience, then the 
conscious perfecting of that love must be another 
and second experience. And if Mr. Wesley and 
his early followers were pleased to call it the Sec- 
ond Blessing, that is just what it was and is. 
What else could it be and can it be? 

That there is such an experience, who can deny 
in the face of the Scripture, which says plainly, 
"In him was the love of God perfected," while 
John repeatedly alludes to the same thing? 

Then follow a host of people, whom no man 
can number, who say that it came into their hearts, 
as clear and definite an experience as ' the witness 
of sonship at the time of pardon. 

A Southern bishop lately, in addressing a class 
of Conference undergraduates, after asking this 
third question, said: "I got that when I was re- 
generated." If that was so, then the amazing 

thought is, how could he press this question on 

10 



146 The Better Way. 

them? For if, as according to the first question, 
they were regenerated men, and he, the bishops 
said he was made perfect in love in regeneration, 
why ask regenerated men if they expected what, 
according to his statement, .they ought already tc 
have? Is God partial? Will God give perfect 
love at regeneration to one man and not to 
another ? 

The writer insists that, if we are made perfect 
in love in regeneration, then the third question is 
silly and utterly needless. Moreover, to ask such 
a question of converted men is to reflect upon their 
regenerated lives. In fact, a Kentucky minister 
called the attention of the bishop to his incon- 
sistency and actual unkindness to the young men 
by such a question ; for if perfect love comes with 
regeneration, to ask these young preachers if they 
expett to be made perfect in love in this life, was 
simply another way of saying they were not re- 
generated now. 

The fourth question is: "Are you groaning 
after it?" 

Not growing, but groaning. 

Not groaning to grow in grace, but to be made 
perfect in tove. 

Not groaning after Ibve, but after perfect love. 



The Methodist Church Way, 147 

Not groaning after more love, but for perfect 
love. 

When will the people get to see these differ- 
ences ? 

Let the reader observe particularly the word 
groan. It calls for the very exercise of spirit that 
many are unwilling to give. It means, beyond 
question, a soul-travail that many know nothing 
about. 

Groaning after it ! 

Groans declare a burdened heart. All know 
that. And here is groaning for perfect love — not 
for growth in grace. 

Let us simplify this. 

A child does not groan to grow. To think of 
a little fellow going around the house groaning, 
and saying he was doing that to grow! But he 
does n't do that. He eats bread, drinks milk, 
frolics around, and grows unconsciously, without 
any groaning about the matter ; but O, how he 
groans for a pony, watch, or gun ! 

So, in the Christian life, we do n't have to groan 
to grow in grace ; but drink the sincere milk of 
the Word, take the bread of life, go to work for 
Christ; and, lo ! we grow unconsciously, and all the 
more beautifully for the very unconsciousness. 



148 The Better Way. 

But how we groan for something outside of us ! 
Something we want in us, and that God alone can 
put in us ! 

Are you groaning after it ? 

It takes groaning to get it. The Methodist 
Church knew that, and made the preachers vow 
they would groan. 

Mind you, the Church did not say, Will you 
grumble about it, or will you growl about it? 
but, Will you groan after it? Some of the 
preachers seem by their course these days to 
have forgotten the word they used that day be- 
fore the Conference bar. It was not growl, 
grumble, ridicule, abuse, or deny ; but groan. 
Are you groaning after it? 

Truly, there has never been a Church which 
has laid its ear closer to the breasts of men, and 
heard the very blood drip from their hearts in the 
spiritual life, as the Methodist Church. She knows 
what groaning is, and what groaning will bring to 
the soul. "Are you groaning after it?" she asks 
of all her preachers. 

I have seen some of our preachers look like 
they were swallowing walnuts when they said 
" Yes " to that question. I found afterward it was 
mental reservations they were swallowing. One of 



The Methodist Church Way. 149 

them publicly afterward said so. This is what the 
Jesuits do — vow with a mental reservation. 

The writer was quite stirred up for a time over 
the question and promise, and " groaned " for 
hours afterward. But he noticed that nobody else 
was groaning around him — neither bishop, presid- 
ing elder, pastor, editor, or connectional officer — 
and so discontinued the painful exercise. He was 
lonely, had no company in that line, and so ceased 
groaning. 

But after living in that groanless state some 
years, a preacher came to help the writer in a 
protracted meeting, and taught him how to groan. 
In a word, he commenced seeking the blessing of 
sanctification with such ardor that he found him- 
self unconsciously groaning for it. He recalls now 
that, on the street, in his room, in the night, and 
through the day, his soul was reaching after God 
with inward cries and groanings for the blessing. 
At last it came to him, and his groans were 
changed into hallelujahs that have dwelt in his 
heart ever since. 

But the strange thing is, that the Church which 
made him groan for fourteen years to get the bless- 
ing, immediately began to make him groan because 
he did have it. Bless her dear heart ! he has de- 



150 The Better Way, 

termined to make her groan until she gets it. He 
knows what it has been to him, and it will be 
equally precious and blessed to her. 

The writer is devoutly thankful that he belonged 
to the Methodist Church. If he had been a mem- 
ber of other denominations, they would have been 
satisfied with his regeneration, and he would have 
missed the greatest blessing of his life. 

But the Methodist Church knew of the Better 
Way, and was not satisfied that her people should 
have a less, when there was a greater grace and 
blessing. So she added the questions: " Do you 
expect to be made perfect in love in this life, and 
are you groaning after it?" 

The same experience is held up before every 
new Church member, in the words of our Ritual, 
spoken by the pastor : " Brethren, do all in your 
power to increase their faith, confirm their hope, 
and perfect them in love." 

It is brought out more clearly to the preacher 
in the ordination vows, because the Methodist 
Church rightly reasons that, if the preachers get 
the blessing, they will soon bring the people in. 

We marvel how a man who has taken such 
vows could ever ignore them as utterly as some 
have done. We marvel that a man can take this 



The Methodist Church Way. 151 

oath, and then turn about and deny and decry an 
experience which he swore he believed in and 
expected to obtain in this life. 

The time to have objected and denied was 
when he stood before the bishop ; and so have 
given the Church a chance to have defended her 
doctrines and people from future assaults, by keep- 
ing out a man who was to prove a foe. He should 
have said then : " I do not believe in it ; I take 
these vows with certain modifications of meaning.'' 

Suppose he had; do we not all know that he 
never would have been admitted into Conference, 
or allowed to preach to a Methodist congregation ? 

We stand amazed at the boldness of some men 
who have been allowed to come inside our fold. 
They were humble enough when they knocked for 
admission. The fable says the camel dictated after 
he got inside the Arab's tent. Alas, that it is 
so still! 

It is certainly a curious spectacle to see a man 
chinking Methodist dollars in his pocket, and get- 
ting fat on Methodist . bread and meat, turning 
about and striking at a Methodist doctrine ! 

They tell us that the holiness people are dis- 
turbers of the peace, agitators of Zion, and Church- 
splitters, and that we should leave. 



152 The Better Way. 

In reply, we would say that we are perfectly 
satisfied with the Methodist Church, her songs, 
prayers, praises, shouts, altar-work, and especially 
her doctrines and experience. We see no reason 
to leave. The teachings of Wesley, Clarke, 
Fletcher, exactly suit us. We have never read 
the works of any author in our Church that can 
equal, much less surpass, these writers we have 
mentioned, in spiritual insight, and in the unfold- 
ing of the Word. 

We do not, as holiness people, object to the 
"four questions. " We have no disposition to 
whittle them down, explain them away, or get 
rid of them. We have found they are right. , In 
a word, we are perfectly satisfied with Methodism 
as given to us by Wesley, and that has been handed 
down to us in great integrity until the last few years. 

If anybody wants to leave, let it be those who 
have forgotten their ordination-vows, ridiculed 
Wesley, denied the standards, and preached ser- 
mons or written books against that doctrine "for 
which God appears chiefly to have raised us up." 

Let it be understood, once for all, that the holi- 
ness people are satisfied with the Methodist Church. 
Others may go, but we propose to stay. We may 
be put out, but we will not come out. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

WITNESSES IN WESLEY'S DAYS. 

u TT^E have known a large number of persons, 
of every age and sex, from early child- 
hood to extreme old age, who have given all the 
proofs, which the nature of the thing admits, that 
they were 'sanctified throughout;' 'cleansed from 
all pollution, both of flesh and spirit;' that they 
loved ' the Lord their God with all their heart, and 
mind, and soul, and strength;' that they contin- 
ually presented their souls and bodies 'a living 
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,' — in consequence 
of which, they 'rejoiced evermore, prayed without 
ceasing, and in everything gave thanks.' And this 
is no other than what we believe to be true Scrip- 
tural sanctification." (Sermons, Vol. II, p. 247.) 

"Agreeably to this is the plain matter of fact. 
Several persons have enjoyed this blessing, with- 
out any interruption, for many years. Several en- 
joy it at this day; and not a few have enjoyed it 
unto their death, as they have declared with their 

latest breath, calmly witnessing that God had saved 

153 



i54 The Better Way, 

them from sin, till their spirit returned to God." 
(Sermons, Vol. II, p. 174.) 

To Miss Elizabeth Hardy, 1761: "The plain 
fact is this : I know many who love God with all 
their heart, mind, soul, and strength. He is their 
one desire, their one delight, and they are contin- 
ually happy in Him. They love their neighbor as 
themselves. They feel as sincere, fervent, constant 
a desire for the happiness of every man — good or 
bad, friend or enemy — as for their own. They c re- 
joice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in every- 
thing give thanks.' Their souls are continually 
streaming up to God in holy joy, prayer, and 
praise. This is a plain, sound, Scriptural experi- 
ence, and of this we have more and more living 
witnesses. " (Works, Vol. VI, p. 737.) 

"After meeting the society, I talked with a 
sensible woman, whose experience seemed pecul- 
iar. She said: ( A few days before Easter last, I 
was deeply convinced of sin, and in Easter-week I 
knew that my sins were forgiven, and was filled 
with 'joy and peace in believing.' But in about 
eighteen days I was convinced, in a dream, of the 
necessity of a higher salvation, and I mourned day 
and night, in an agony of desire, to be thoroughly 
sanctified, till, on the twenty-third day after my 



Witnesses in Wesley's Days. 155 

justification, I found a total change, together with 
a clear witness that the blood of Jesus had cleansed 
me from all unrighteousness.' " (Journal, June 
23, 1761.) 

"In the evening I spoke to those at Manchester 
who believed that God had cleansed their hearts. 
They were sixty-three in number, to about sixty of 
whom I could not find there was any reasonable 
objection." (Vol. VII, p. 381.) 

To Mr. Furley, 1762: "For me, I shall only 
once more state the case. There are forty or fifty 
people who declare (and I can take their word; for 
I know them well), each for himself: 'God has en- 
abled me to rejoice evermore, and to pray and give 
thanks without ceasing. I feel no pride, no anger, 
no desire, no unbelief, but pure love alone.' . . . 
Here is a plain fact. You may dispute, reason, cavil 
about it just as you please. Meantime, I know, 
by all manner of proof, that these are the happiest 
and holiest people in the kingdom. Their light 
shines before men." {Methodist Magazine, 1856, 

P . 988.) 

"That many of these did not retain the gift of 
God is no proof that it was not given them. That 
many do retain it to this day is matter of praise 
and thanksgiving. And many of them are gone 



156 The Better Way. 

to Him whom they loved, praising Him with their 
latest breath — -just in the spirit of Ann Steed, the 
first witness in Bristol of the great salvation, who, 
being worn out with sickness and racking pain, 
after she had commended to God all that were 
round her, lifted up her eyes, cried aloud, ' Glory! 
hallelujah!' and died." (Journal, Oct., 1762.) 

"I buried the remains of Joseph Norbury, a 
faithful witness of Jesus Christ. For about three 
years he has humbly and boldly testified that God 
had saved him from all sin, and his whole spirit 
and behavior in life and death made his testimony 
beyond exception." (Journal, Dec, 1763.) 

"I buried the remains of Thomas Salmon, a 
good and useful man. What was peculiar in his 
experience was, he did not know when he was 
justified; but he did know when he was renewed 
in love, that work being wrought in a most dis- 
tinct manner. After this he continued about a 
year in constant love, joy, and peace; then, after 
an illness of a few days, he cheerfully went to God." 
(Journal, Feb., 1764.) 

To his brother Charles, 1766: "That perfection 
which I believe, I can boldly preach, because I 
think I see five hundred witnesses of it." (Works, 
English edition, Vol. XII, p. 122.) 



Witnesses in Wesley's Days. 157 

. u In the evening I preached, in the house at 
Wednesbury, a funeral sermon for Elizabeth Long- 
more, I think the first witness of Christian per- 
fection whom God raised up in these parts. I 
gave some account of her experience many years 
ago. From that time her whole life was answer- 
able to her profession, every way holy and unblam- 
able. Frequently she had not bread to eat, but 
that did not hinder her ' rejoicing evermore.' " 
(Journal, March, 1770.) 

"I assisted at the funeral of Susanna Pilson. 
She was one of the first members of this society, 
and continued firm in the hottest of the persecu- 
tion. Upward of twenty years she adorned the 
gospel, steadily and uniformly walking with God. 
For a great part of the time she was a living wit- 
ness that 'the blood of Christ cleanseth from all 
sin.' After a lingering illness, she calmly resigned 
her soul into the hands of her faithful Creator. " 
(Journal, May, 1771.) 

"From the very time of her justification, she 
(Susanna Spencer) clearly saw the necessity of be- 
ing wholly sanctified, and found an unspeakable 
hunger and thirst after the full image of God, and, 
in the year 1772, God answered her desire. The 
second change was wrought in as strong and dis- 



158 The Better Way. 

tinct a manner as the first had been." (Journal, 
Oct., 1774.) 

" I returned to London, and Sunday, nth, buried 
the remains of Eleanor Lee. I believe she received 
the great promise of God — entire sanctification — 
fifteen or sixteen years ago, and that she never lost 
it for an hour. I conversed intimately with her 
ever since, and never saw her do any action, little 
or great, nor heard her speak any word, which I 
could reprove. Thou wast indeed 'a mother in 
Israel.'" (Journal, Oct., 1778.) 

"In the afternoon I preached a funeral sermon 
for Mary Charlton, an Israelite indeed. From the 
hour she first knew the pardoning love of God, 
she never lost sight of it for a moment. Eleven 
years ago she believed that God had cleansed her 
from all sin, and she showed that she had not be- 
lieved in vain by her holy and unblamable conver- 
sation." (Journal, May, 1781.) 

To L. Caughland, 1768: "Blessed be God, 
though we set a hundred enthusiasts aside, we are 
still ' encompassed with a cloud of witnesses,' who 
have testified, and do testify, in life and death, that 
perfection which I have taught these forty years. 
This perfection can not be a delusion unless the 
Bible be a delusion too. I mean ' loving God with 



Witnesses in Wesley's Days. 159 

all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves.' I 
pin down all its opposers to this definition of it. 
No evasion. No shifting the question. Where is 
the delusion of this? Either you received this 
love, or you did not. If you did, dare you call it 
a delusion? You will not call it so for all the 
world. If you received anything else, it does 
not at all affect the question." (Journal, Aug., 

1768.) 

To Mrs. Bennis he writes : " Now, certainly, if 
God has given you this light, He did not intend 
that you should hide it under a bushel. It is good 
to conceal the secrets of a king, but it is good to 
tell the loving kindness of the Lord." In the same 
letter he says: " One reason why those who are 
saved from sin should freely declare it to believers 
is, because nothing is a stronger incentive to them 
to seek after the same blessing. And we ought, 
by every possible means, to press every serious 
believer to forget the things which are behind, 
and with all earnestness go on to perfection." 

To Miss Chapman, 1773: u You can never 
speak too strongly or explicitly upon the head of 
Christian perfection. If you speak only faintly and 
indirectly, none will be offended and none profited ; 
but if you speak out, although some will probably 



160 The Better Way, 

be angry, yet others will soon find the power of 
God unto salvation." 

"At our love-feast in the evening (at Redruth) 
♦several of our friends declared how God had saved 
them from inbred sin, with such exactness, both of 
sentiment and language, as clearly showed they 
were taught of God." (Journal, 1785.) 

"Whenever you have opportunity of speaking * 
to believers, urge them to go on to perfection. 
Spare no pains; and God still give you his bless- 
ing." (Letter to Mr. Booth, 1791, Vol. VII, p. 238.) 

"A man that is not a thorough friend to Chris- 
tian perfection will easily puzzle others, and there- 
by weaken, if not destroy any select society." (Let- 
ter to Mr. E. Lewby, 1791, Vol. VII, p. 253.) 

These last quotations from Mr. Wesley's Jour- 
nal are dated after the time that some say Mr. 
Wesley changed his views. 

HESTER ANN ROGERS. 

We select from the Autobiography of Hester 
Ann Rogers the following: In describing her 
struggle after the blessing, she records this prayer : 
" Lord, cried I, make this the moment of my 
full salvation. Baptize me now with the Holy 
Ghost and fire of pure love. Now make me a 



Witnesses in Wesley's Days. 161 

clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. 
Now enter the temple, and cast out sin forever. 
Now cleanse the thoughts, desires, and propen- 
sities of my heart, and let me love Thee perfectly." 
After receiving the blessing, she describes her 
experience with these words : "I now walk in the 
unclouded light of His countenance; ' rejoicing 
evermore, praying without ceasing, and in every- 
thing giving thanks.' I resolved, however, at first, 
I would not openly declare what the Lord had 
wrought ; but it was seen in my countenance, and 
when asked respecting it, I durst not deny the 
wonders of His love. I soon found that this 
repeating of His good confirmed my own faith 
more and more. And so did the Lord bless me in 
declaring it ; yea, and blessed others also, that I 
was constrained to witness to all who feared Him : 

1 His blood can make the foulest clean; 
His blood availed for me.' 

I dared not to live above a moment at a time, and 

that moment by faith in the Son of God. I never 

felt till now the full meaning of those words, i In 

Him we live, and move, and have our being.' And 

again: ( I will dwell in them, and walk in them, 

and be their God ; I will put my laws into their 

minds, and write them in their hearts.' Glory be 

ii 



1 62 The Better Way, 

to my God, I felt it written, c It was no longer I 
that lived, but Christ that lived in me !' 

' Yes, Christ was all in all to me, 
And all my heart was love.' " 

JOHN FLETCHER. 

" I have received this blessing before ; but I 
grieved the Spirit of God by not making confes- 
sion, and as often I let it go. I lost it by not ob- 
serving and obeying the order of God, who hath 
told us, ' With the heart man believeth unto right- 
eousness, and with the mouth confession is made 
unto salvation,' which latter I neglected.'' 

" Now, my brethren, you see my folly. I have 
confessed in your presence, and now I resolve, in 
your presence also, henceforth I will confess my 
Master to all the world. And I declare unto you, 
in the presence of God, I am now dead indeed 
unto sin. I do not say I am crucified with Christ, 
because some of our well-meaning brethren say, 
by this can only be meant a gradual dying unto 
sin ; for a man who is crucified is a long time in 
dying; but I profess unto you I am dead unto sin, 
and that as effectually as my original nature was 
free from righteousness." (Life of Hester Ann 
Rogers.) 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

SOME WITNESSES IN OUR TIME. 
REV. S. A. KEEN, D. D. 

a TN my twenty-sixth year I became a member 
T~ of the Conference. I was at once given a 
better place and more responsible work than I 
deserved ; for I knew I did not measure up to 
what I ought to be. For the first three months 
of my ministry I earnestly sought for the equip- 
ment which I knew I needed if I would be a suc- 
cess for God ; but I had no help, and so made 
no progress. With the incoming of the new year 
I began a meeting ; had large congregations and 
good interest, but no souls saved. I worked on 
until the second Sunday, and I thought surely 
some one would come that day. God helped me 
to preach, and I presented the altar, but no one 
came. My heart was almost broken. I did not 
go about shaking hands as usual, but stood alone 
within the chancel-rail until all were gone, and 
then went home in the darkness alone, searching 
my heart as I went. To the question, l Why is it 

163 



164 The Better Way. 

that sinners are not saved under my ministry?' 
the Spirit gave this answer : ' You can not expect 
sinners to act up to their convictions when you 
do n't do it yourself?' I went home and told my 
wife that I had found out what was the matter 
with the meeting. She asked: ( What is it?' 
I replied : l It 's the preacher ; I want entire sanc- 
tification.' Well, wife and I were the first seekers 
in that meeting. Every time I presented the 
altar I would leave the pulpit and go outside the 
rail, and kneel at it myself, and my wife would 
come and kneel by my side. Over and over I 
would say : ( Lord, I am Thine, wholly Thine, for- 
ever Thine.' But I was so dull that I didn't 
know that that was faith ; but soon I could not do 
any more praying. Every time I went to prayer 
the same thing happened. I could not pray 
for this blessing any more. Then one day I went 
to my room just to pray for help in preaching, 
and there I got the full assurance. I was all 
melted down ; tears flowed in streams ; and as I 
went up the aisle of my church that night I just 
i blubbered ' like a baby. I tried to tell them what 
had come to me, but I couldn't for ' blubbering.' 
But sixteen men were converted that night, and 
one hundred and sixty were saved in all in the 



Some Witnesses in Our Time. 165 

meeting;- and from that day to this God has 
not left me a single year without a great revival. 
For twenty-five years I have preached a gospel of 
full salvation in the Churches to which I have 
been sent. I have shouted it in the ears of thirty- 
two Annual Conferences, and for three weeks in 
the General Conference, and in almost numberless 
camp-meetings and revivals ; and am here to-night 
in the strength of it to invite you to bring in your 
• tithes ' and get the l abundant ' blessing." 

For more complete account see " Praise Papers," 
which embraces his autobiography and a chapter 
by his wife on his triumphant translation, Novem- 
ber 11, 1895. 

REV. W. C. DUNI/AP. 

" In 1878- — I never shall forget the day or the 
place — after a long season of closet prayer, during 
which time I thought sure the witness would come, 
I went out on my pastoral rounds (it was in the 
town of Thomson, thirty-seven miles from Augusta). 
On my return, visiting a widowed sister in Christ, 
I passed some colored carpenters at work on a 
house, and stopped and exhorted them on making 
sure of the l House not made with hands, eternal 
in the Heavens. ' About fifty yards beyond, all of 
a sudden I was filled with the Heaven of love. 



1 66 The Better Way. 

There 'was no great shock about it, and yet it per- 
meated, in a second of time, my whole being. 

" I realized the cleansing and filling of the 
Holy Ghost. I knew Jesus was enthroned in my 
heart as King and Priest, without a rival. All 
unbelief was gone. I stopped in the center of the 
court-house square and looked at my hands and 
feet. I said, ' What is this ?' and the Spirit an- 
swered as plainly to my spiritual consciousness as 
ever human voice spoke through my sense of hear- 
ing : i This is the blessing you have been seeking ; 
this is the blessing of perfect love.' 

" I did not shout, as I had always done pre- 
viously under a great baptism of the Spirit ; I did 
not feel like making a noise ; I was all dissolved 
in love. I wanted to put my arms around the 
whole world of mankind and pass them to the 
great heart of Jesus. I had an experience of love 
for every creature of God. I felt I could go into a 
lion's den without the least fear of harm from the 
wild beast. I went down to the parsonage ; I 
embraced my wife and all my children. I felt I 
loved them for the first time with a pure love ; 
I felt that I loved God with all my heart, and 
my neighbor — both black and white — as I loved 
myself. " 



Some Witnesses in Our Time. 167 

REV. J. W. CULIvOM. 

He wrote to a friend as follows : " You know I 
have long been seeking the blessing of perfect 
love. On Tuesday, August 29, 1893, I went to 
Church fasting, and with heart-cries to God. As 
soon as the morning services were over, while the 
people were partaking of the basket dinner, I went 
to the woods. Down a little dry branch among 
the trees I walked for perhaps a quarter of a mile. 
I lay down on the ground and talked with God. 
I had long sought the blessing of sanctification by 
leaving off one thing and another that I thought 
might be a hindrance. Then it occurred to me that 
I was trying to kill the tree by cutting off a branch 
here and there. Why not ask the Lord to take up 
the tree, root and branch? And why not now? 
1 Lord, I believe it is done !' But at once the 
thought came, ' Yes, it is done, but where is the 
evidence V Then I said : ' Evidence or no evidence, 
I will never recede from this act; everything is on 
the altar, and there it shall stay/ 

" Instantly a sweet peace possessed my whole 
being. I had no concern about a text or sermon, 
but selected St. John's words : ' What we have seen 
and heard we declare unto you/ I could do noth- 



168 The Better Way. 

ing for a while but laugh and cry, and had to get 
a brother to lead in the opening exercises. 

" Since that hour I have never had a moment 
that I could not say, ' Bless the Lord, O my soul !' 
The Bible is a transformed book, and our hymns 
have a new meaning. The air is pure and sweet. 
My soul is as a bird on the wing. I am happy 
every moment." 

THE EXPERIENCE OF REV. T. A. ATKINSON. 

I went to hear the opening sermon. It was on 
" Elijah's Altar on Carmel." The fire fell. 

At the close of the sermon, when an oppor- 
tunity was given for seekers for sanctification, 
about twenty came. We were called to prayer. I 
got inside the altar, and knelt. 

I found myself in a strange frame of mind, 
which I have found impossible to describe. I be- 
lieve if it had not been for my relation to the 
meeting I should have left. Dr. Carradine called 
on me to lead in prayer. It was a very unsatis- 
factory effort. It seemed impossible to lift the 
petition. 

There seemed to be a question asked: "What 
are you praying for?" "Who are you talking to?" 
"Where are you anyhow?" I tried to pray for 



Some Witnesses in Our Time. 169 

those at the altar. Then I struck a breaker, 
which reminded me that it was inconsistent to 
pray for those who were seeking the very thing 
I stood greatly in need of myself. At the close 
of the service I went home, solemn, silent, and 
thoughtful. I told my wife I believed there was 
some truth in it. The night was spent in prayer, 
and no sleep at all. My prayer was: " Search 
me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and 
know my thoughts: and see if there be any 
wicked way in me, and lead me in the way ever- 
lasting. " 

God heard and answered that prayer. The 
search-light was turned on. My! my! what reve- 
lations ! Every room from garret to cellar was ex- 
amined, and we were astonished to find things and 
principles that ought not to be there. How the 
"old man of sin" did squirm and writhe under the 
light and the fire ! 

Monday morning dawned, January 8th. I 
hastened to the ten o'clock meeting. Dr. Carra- 
dine opened with a testimony-meeting. I made a 
little speech — reviewed my twenty-two years of 
ministerial labors: said I had been sufficiently pli- 
able and sanctified to pull in any kind of harness, 
even if there was frost on the collar; that my idea 



170 The Better Way. 

of sanctification was service. After that, I thought 
a person ought to have grace enough to keep still, 
and give others a chance to talk, which seemed 
hard for many whom I had seen, who professed to 
be wholly sanctified. I was fighting in the last 
ditch. I said: "But if there is anything better, I 
want it." Dr. Carradine seemed to be looking 
through and through me, and said: "God bless 
your honest heart!" 

In the sermon that followed, the power came 
upon the audience. There was conviction every- 
where. I began to feel the last prop taken away. 
I said: "Old fellow, you are in for it! You have 
either got to stand in or run!" I went forward 
with the crowd. I said: "I can't withstand God's 
work." I felt His presence and power, w T hen the 
devil presented the probable consequences of my 
surrender to the doctrine. 

I said: "Who am I, that I should withstand 
God?" 

In a moment the temptation was gone. 

In the evening the interest was intensified. 

O, what a sermon! It seemed to me that the 
lightnings were flashing and spangling over the 
audience. It struck! I was as pliable as wax. 
The Holy Spirit in mighty power was upon me. 



Some Witnesses in Our Time. 171 

I returned home, to spend another night of heart- 
searching and wakefulness. About one or two 
o'clock there was a sense of surrender — every an- 
tagonistic element in my heart gave way; yet I did 
not have the evidence of sanctification. 

All at once the Bible seemed to be animated; 
text after text began to be repeated, and impressed 
upon my innermost consciousness with the flash of 
a new illumination. One in particular was: "I am 
crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not 
I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life which I 
now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son 
of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." 
(Gal. ii, 20.) 

In a moment my thoughts reverted to the dread 
and anxiety I had had of the Carradine meetings, 
when, suddenly, a vivid impression of two stanzas 
of the old Methodist hymn came into my soul, and 
I repeated them audibly: 

"Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take: 
The clouds ye so much dread 
Are big with mercy, and shall break 
In blessings on your head. 

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, 

But trust Him for His grace ; 
Behind a frowning providence 

He hides a smiling face." 



172 The Better Way, 

I said: "Lord, they are breaking now; this 
may come out all right now." Then came this 
stanza : 

''Blind unbelief is sure to err, 
And scan His work in vain: 
God is His own interpreter, 
And He will make it plain." 

I prayed: "L,ord, make it plain! Don't let me 
be deceived!" 

I was up early next morning at the church be- 
fore the time for service. I can't describe the ex- 
pectancy of my soul. God was leading in a mar- 
velous way. I had not talked privately with any 
one of my convictions. They left me with God, 
When the call came, after a loving, unctuous ser- 
mon from Dr. Carradine — which proved most help- 
ful to me in the peculiar state that I was in— I 
walked forward, took a chair, passed by the altar 
where crowds were bowing, seeking sanctification, 
among whom was my wife, which enabled me to 
feel, "Well, thank God, I will be understood at 
home!" I placed the chair to itself, and as I 
bowed, determined to make a perfect, absolute, 
and eternal consecration. It was a struggle of a 
soul aroused, awakened, convinced, convicted of 
the supreme need, the one thing needful, "the 
more excellent way." 



Some Witnesses in Our Time. 173 

As I prayed, I said: " Yes, Lord, I know Dr. 
A. will actually laugh, ridicule, and have a grand 
time over my profession of sanctification. I am 
going to be misunderstood, crucified, discounted !" 
And then the reflection came that the reason I 
had not received the blessing before was, that I 
feared the preachers and members of the charges 
in the Conference, who had known of my attitude, 
and who would be greatly surprised that I had 
gone back on my position, and shifted quarters. 
Then the twenty-two years of ministerial labor 
would be discounted. Finally I put all on the 
altar. I became oblivious to the surroundings. I 
forgot the people ; everything seemed to fade away. 
" The horror of great darkness fell upon me," and 
in a few moments a strange awe took possession 
of my soul. I became motionless as a corpse. I 
began to get rigid. I had a sense of dying, and 
yet felt no fear. There came over my soul the 
most awful and thrilling sense of God's presence 
ever realized. Then an impression of a small 
globe of light in the midst of the darkness was 
before my soul, which was perfectly steady, and in 
the midst of which came out in clearly-defined out- 
lines a face of marvelous tenderness and beauty, 
under which my heart melted. My soul seemed to 



174 The Better Way. 

say, " Is it my Savior?" Then came a passage of 
Scripture: " Behold I stand at the door and knock: 
if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I 
will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he 
with Me." 

Then came the impression upon my soul: It 
all depends upon you ; you can yield, let me in, or 
resist. Close the door if you are unwilling to pay 
the price and make the consecration. But if you 
do so, then I will withdraw. Suddenly, as I trem- 
bled in the balance, I felt that the crisis had 
been reached, and to have resisted would have im- 
periled my salvation. 

I pen these lines now, eight months after I had 
that vivid impression. I do not doubt that, had I 
resisted and the blessed Savior passed away, the 
echoes in my soul of the departing footsteps would 
have been the knell of eternal damnation. 

At that moment this Scripture came to my 
mind: " From henceforth let no man trouble me, 
for I bear in my body the marks of the I^ord 
Jesus." 

As I submitted, and my will yielded, I threw 
wide the door of my heart. There went through 
me the sweep and thrill of electric fire ! I became 
conscious that the work was done. I cried: "The 



Some Witnesses in Our Time. 175 

blood cleanses ! the blood cleanses I" There came 
the most thrilling sense of a clean heart. 

I knew I had a clean, pure heart. It seemed 
to me that a great magnolia had blossomed in my 
soul. I opened my eyes and said : "I am sanc- 
tified ! I 've got it, sure ! It 's true, after all !" O 
why did not somebody tell me twenty years ago 
that God had such a blessing as this for His be- 
lieving children? As I arose from my knees, I 
spoke to Sister G., and extended my hand, saying: 
" I 've got it sure ! It } s true ! Glory to God !" 

Then came a wave of joy and a thrill of ecstasy 
which swept me up the aisle with shouts of praise 
to God. For two more nights I did not sleep. I 
was filled and thrilled with an indescribable and 
ecstatic joy. Glory to God ! I am so wonderfully 
kept, sustained, and blessed. Christ is all and in 
all to me. He has been made unto me wisdom, 
righteousness, sanctification, and, I expect in the 
end, redemption. I do n't understand all the won- 
derful phenomena of God's marvelous dealings with 
my poor heart ; but it is true, glory to His precious 
name ! He tells us that He is able to do exceed- 
ing abundantly above all that we ask or think, 
according to the power that worketh in us. Unto 
Him be glory in the Church (not out of the Church, 



176 The Better Way. 

am no come-outer), by Christ Jesus throughout all 
ages (not at Pentecost, but even in this and all 
ages), world without end. Amen ! 

REV. W. B. PAIvMORE, 

(EDITOR OF ST. LOUIS CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.) 

There are two men — one now in the Church 
triumphant, the other in the Church militant — to 
whom we shall feel indebted throughout the end- 
less or eternal ages. The conversion and life of 
Dr. Addison P. Brown outweighed all the books, 
lectures, and sermons we ever read or heard on the 
evidences of Christianity. He was the human in- 
strument used to lead me to conviction, to a Meth- 
odist mourners' bench, and to the blood of atone- 
ment — to conscious peace and pardon. The 
Methodist Church was chosen, and joined, some- 
what as we choose a berth and recline in a Pull- 
man sleeping-car. Not for a moment has the 
genuineness of my conversion ever been doubted; 
but my rest has been anything else but perfect or 
continuous. There were times, through all these 
years, when "wandering notes from a diviner 
music " strayed into my spirit; but these experi- 
ences came at few and fitful moments. I had no 
sense of possession in them. They came unan- 
nounced, and left without explanation. At times 



Some Witnesses in Our Time. 177 

lifted up with the hope that peace was beginning 
to flow as a river, which was as suddenly lost amid 
the rush of the rapids and dreadful roar of a pos- 
sible cataclysm ; but over all the cloud of mist was 
the constant bow of promise and of hope that some 
day I would attain unto perfect rest. To the 
bishop who received me into the Methodist min- 
istry, I expressed the expectation to receive it in 
this life, and that I was groaning after it. These 
groans, I fear, have been too much like angels' 
visits. 

After fruitless efforts in the consecration and the 
growth theory, I was persuaded to try consecration 
and faith. In this theory I went to the altar, time 
and again, for days in succession, asking the prayers 
and help of all who had found this rest, just as I 
went to the mourners' bench while seeking pardon 
years ago. After the battle of full consecration 
came the battle of faith, to believe the altar — the 
Divine nature of Christ — cleanses and keeps the 
gift. After walking for «a time by naked faith, the 
intellect assenting, then came the inner witness, 
the heart consenting, and entering into rest. Water 
rests only when it gets to the lowest place ; so did 
my soul. And I am persuaded that I can only 
keep this rest by walking continually down in the 



178 The Better Way. 

valley with Him who "made Himself of no repu- 
tation, " who is "meek and lowly in heart.' ' 

We do not propose in this writing to open 
these columns for a debate. I know from personal 
experience that a man who is unwilling to humble 
himself, and seek the "hidden manna and the 
white stone with a new name," will be but little 
benefited by such a discussion. Some will doubt- 
less say that I was never before converted ; others 
will say it is only a case of recovery or restoration 
from a backslidden state. Suppose we admit the 
truth of both or either, possibly some reader of 
these lines may be as badly deceived as the writer 
has been through all these years. If so, we would 
advise you at once to come to St. Louis, and place 
yourself under the influence of a marvelous meet- 
ing now in progress in Centenary Church. We 
have not witnessed such manifestations of the 
presence and power of God for twenty years. 
Services every morning at 10.30, and in the even- 
ing at 7.30. 

This meeting has been in progress about three 
weeks, and 130 have professed sanctification, seven 
of whom are preachers, besides eighty professions 
of regeneration. " He that doeth the will of my 
Father shall know the doctrine, whether it be of 



Some Witnesses in Our Time. 179 

God." Come, brother, try the Baconian or experi- 
mental method in the discovery of truth. Death 
to the lower self is the nearest gate and quickest 
road to life. Some plants are never found in high 
altitudes. Heart's-ease will only grow down on 
the level of the ocean of God's love. 

As Doctor Brown was to my regeneration, so 
was Doctor Carradine to my sanctification. His 
serene life in the midst of a tempestuous criticism 
and opposition, together with his plain, practical 
preaching, led me to test his doctrine, whether it 
be of God ; and I am satisfied with the test. Long 
may he wave, and never waver! (From an edi- 
torial in the St. Louis Christian Advocate of May 
,20, 1891.) 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
HOW I ENTERED IN. 

THE preacher who led me into this grace, told 
me it was received through two steps, and 
that the first was 

Consecration. 

Immediately I began to consecrate. One would 
say that I had consecrated before ; that all Chris- 
tians, worthy of the name, should be consecrated. 
All this is true ; but in seeking sanctification, I 
discovered the difference between consecration and 
perfect consecration. The latter alone obtains the 
blessing of entire sanctification. 

So the consecration made this time was one 
where nothing was withheld from God. There 
was not a single mental reservation. The various 
steps taken at this time in getting on the altar, re- 
main vividly with me after the lapse of six years, 
and will never, for that matter, be forgotten. 

One of the first calls or impressions of the 

Spirit upon me was, Would I give up big 

Churches? 
180 



How I Entered In 181 

This means much to many preachers. It is 
felt by numbers to be a proper ambition: that it 
means a larger sphere of usefulness. Anyhow, we 
all know it means gratified ambition. So the 
question went into me like a dart. But in the 
midst of the pain, I cried out: "Yes, L,ord, and 
will go to the humblest circuit in the Connection 
if you will give me this blessing." 

The second impression was like unto it, Would 
I give up big salaries; be willing to have a small 
income in the service of the L,ord if He should so 
order it? 

The answer was, " Yes, Lord." 

The third call was, Would I quit trying to 
preach big sermons? 

Quick as a flash came the response of my heart, 
"Yes, Lord;" and I have not tried to deliver such 
a sermon from that day to this. 

A fourth thought came to me in the same ques- 
tioning form, Would I give up all desire and ex- 
pectation of becoming a bishop? 

Many of my preacher-readers will smile at this, 
but they know better than others how much is in 
the thought. I question in my mind whether 
there has ever been a traveling preacher in our 
Church but has had dreams and desires concerning 



1 82 The Better Way. 

this office. Paul said that he that desired the 
office of a bishop, desired "a good thing." Judg- 
ing from many things we see to-day, we think that 
conclusion is cordially shared with the apostle by 
a great many others. Judging from advantages 
not always spiritual or heavenly, it is the best thing 
in the gift of the Church to-day. 

While preaching at the St. Louis Annual Con- 
ference, several years ago, I remarked in my ser- 
mon, to an audience in which were nearly one 
hundred preachers: " Brethren, if you all knew 
how many preachers here once expected or still 
hope to be bishops, you would be amazed." A 
profound stillness came upon the audience, as if 
they expected I would call out names; but I did 
not have time to run over the Conference roll, and 
so went on to another point in the discourse. 
Later in the afternoon, I met a young preacher, 
who had been preaching for six months as a " sup- 
ply," on some remote backwoods circuit. He was 
a young man of unusually unsophisticated appear- 
ance. Stopping me, he said : 

" Doctor, you greatly hurt me to-day in what 
you said in your sermon." 

"Hurt you, my brother!" was my response. 
"Why, in what way?" 



How I Entered In. 183 

"O," he rejoined, "you struck me in what you 
said about being a bishop. " 

I dropped my head to hide the smile that would 
come up, and inwardly cried: "O L,ord, is the lep- 
rosy in this lad also?" 

So the reader sees something of the inward 
query: "Will you give up all dreamings about the 
bishopric ?" 

The answer came welling up, "Yes, Lord." 
The dream vanished from that moment, never to 
return. What a relief this alone has been! What 
a relief it would be to many others if they would 
do likewise, and what a relief to their friends, and 
to the whole Church, and to Heaven! 

A fifth test came up in the question, Would I 
be willing to be cast out by my brethren? 

That preacher who has a first-class appoint- 
ment, and possesses a large number of ministerial 
friends, can best understand the heaviness of the 
cross revealed in these words. 

Again came the old answer, "Yes, L,ord;" and 
the eyes grew suddenly wet, and the heart saw 
Gethsemane in the distance, and knew there were 
coming hours of lonely prayer, and sweat of blood, 
and angry voices of arrest, and at the same time 
would be heard the dying away in the distance of 



184 The Better Way. 

the retreating footsteps of former friends. But the 
word "Yes" was said in spite of the vision. 

A sixth trial came up. Would I be willing to 
be regarded and called a crank and fanatic ? 

So this meant that the reputation that had been 
patiently built up for fourteen years was to be all 
knocked down and blown away. 

" Yes, Lord." 

And what have they not called me since that 
hour! 

A seventh test came up in the form of a gold 
watch that I wore at this time. 

Would I take it off for Christ's, conscience', and 
the people's sake? 

Why should I ? was the mental query. 

The answer came : The Bible says not to wear 
gold, the Methodist Discipline says not to do it, 
and the consciences of many are offended at such 
a spectacle in a preacher's dress. 

This was amply sufficient ; and the watch was 
sold for $65, and the money given to foreign 
missions. 

Let no one suppose that we are making our 
own conscience a law for other people. We know 
very lovely, religious people who wear gold watches, 
and who are far more spiritual and devoted and 



How I Entered In. 185 

useful than the writer. I am simply telling how I 
obtained the blessing. 

I took off the gold watch ; and I removed it 
because I did not want an appearance of evil on 
me. I did not want, when correcting a man 
in the future for violation of the Word of God 
or infraction of the Discipline, to be embarrassed 
and even silenced by the remark that I was also 
guilty. 

So I took off the watch ; and the people said 
I was losing my mind ; and it was so, but it hap- 
pened to be my carnal mind. 

An additional test came at this time, in a still 
simpler form. I had developed a taste for carry- 
ing a rattan. One morning, on coming to the 
altar, my rattan fell with a slight clatter, on the 
floor near my knees. Something whispered : 
" What are you carrying that rattan around for?" 

" O," I mentally replied, " I am not feeling very 
strong this spring, and I want it to lean on." 

"Yes," said the inward whisper; "but it is so 
pliant that you can not- lean on it; you know that 
it bends under the lightest touch." 

" That is so," I said, with an inward groan. 

After a pause came the still whisper: "Would 
you not like to lean on Christ altogether ? Would 



1 86 The Better Way. 

you not like to 'come up out of the wilderness 
leaning on the arm of your Beloved?' " 

The tears dashed into my eyes, and I said, 
" O yes, Lord, I want nothing better ; let me have 
Christ alone, from this hour, to lean upon ;" and 
springing up, I took the little walking-cane, broke 
it over my knee, walked to the window, and cast 
the pieces into the yard. 

And now the word ran swiftly among the out- 
side critics and judges that I had certainly lost 
my mind. 

I only said "Hallelujah !" when I heard of the 
remark. 

Somehow I could not conceive of Christ wear- 
ing a gold watch and carrying a rattan; and so, 
desiring to be as much like Him as possible, most 
gladly I stripped myself of anything and all things 
that I could not say were Christ-like. 

Still . another test came up in the rectification 
of little wrongs. 

When persons are looking for friends to visit 
them, they are careful to make everything tidy, and 
not only to sweep in the house, but around and even 
under the house. To make the place in a sense 
worthy of the loved visitor is the idea. So, when 
looking for Christ to come into the soul and life as 



How I Entered In 187 

a perpetual indweller, this conviction and desire 
both agree in regard to being cleansed and pre- 
pared for the heavenly coming. 

" Sanctify yourselves ; for I, the Lord your God, 
will sanctify you." 

With a jealous care I studied my life to see 
what would offend Christ's holy eye should He 
draw near. Everything of course went that was 
in the slightest way questionable. I gave the 
benefit of every doubt to the Savior. 

Among the things I rectified was the recalling 
of hasty speeches and the humble acknowledg- 
ment to the party against whom the offense had 
been committed. 

One of these persons was a friend and favorite 
steward on my Board of Officials. Walking over 
to him, with a heart full of pain at the confession, 
I told him, with a choking voice, as I gently laid 
my hand on his shoulder, that I had talked about 
him ; and to please forgive me. In an instant we 
were in each others' arms, and happy tears were 
falling down my face. 

The other party to whom I made acknowledg- 
ment of hasty, irritable speech on a certain occa- 
sion, was my wife. The hasty speech had been 
forgiven by the Lord at once ; but the Spirit brought 



1 88 The Better Way, 

it up to mind as a test of obedience to His sugges- 
tions, and as a proper confession to her. 

All this may look very little to some people ; 
but I simply beg them to remember that I got the 
blessing along this line, and so these things can not 
be so little. 

Somehow the writer believes that if every hus- 
band in the land would do the just thing to his 
wife in this regard, there would be a wonderful 
clearing up of the home atmosphere, and a great 
many female hearts would be made happy in the 
land. 

Anyhow I did it, and the cork-like feeling of 
the body and the feather-like sensation of the soul 
steadily increased. 

Still another and final test of consecration 
came in the line of obedience. I had promised to 
" hearken unto His voice, " whether in the Word 
or whether it came as a deep impression on 
my soul. 

One day, while in the French part of the city 
of New Orleans, on the way to pay a pressing pas- 
toral call, the inward voice and impression that I 
knew so well to be of God, bade me do a very try- 
ing thing. It is needless to describe minutely 
what it was: would only say that I was unques- 



How I Entered In. 189 

tionably moved to speak an hour with a very 
prominent man about his soul and a hurtful influ- 
! ence that he was just then exercising over many 
thousands. For nearly an hour I spoke with the 
man, face to face, about these things, doing it 
gently and lovingly, but firmly. 

It was after this that I felt my consecration was 
complete — that God had given me the final test, 
and had proved to the angels and men and myself 
that I was all on the altar. 

Going to the preacher, I said: "What more 
shall I do? What is the next step?" His reply 
was: " Believe that the altar on which you have 
placed yourself now sanctifies you." He gave me 
two Scripture passages for it: "Whatsoever touch- 
eth the altar shall be holy," and "The altar sanc- 
tifieth the gift." 

But I said to him: "I do n't feel it." 

His reply was: "Believe it without feeling." 

And so I did. I walked away, saying in my 

heart, "The altar sanctifies the gift." I said it 

over and over; first with a sinking heart, but with 

a. growing strength and faith as the hours went by. 

As there came a test to my consecration, so 

there came a test to my faith; and an impression, 

conviction, or leading — I know not which — formu- 



i go The Better Way. 

lated itself thus in my mind: "If you believe 
truly what the Word of God says about it, why 
not tell it? Do you believe it enough to acknowl- 
edge it to others?" 

This brought a kind of gasp ; but at once rally- 
ing, I said: "Yes, Lord, I will tell it to all you 
want me." So I told first my wife, and then my 
Church, that the altar sanctified me; that I did 
not have the witness yet, but believed the altar 
sanctified me. 

If there is any one on earth who knows a man, 
it is his wife ; and if any body of people knows an 
individual, a congregation has very well weighed 
and sized up their pastor. To both of these I 
made the confession of faith. 

There was nothing now more to do except pray 
and wait. This was continually done. Prayer at 
this time was the very breath of my mouth, and 
my eyes were ever looking upward in expectation 
of the descending blessing for which my soul was 
now panting and crying. 

On the morning it came, I was suddenly awak- 
ened, an hour before day, by the touch of the 
Divine Hand. It was not nature's gradual awaken- 
ing and recovery of the mental faculties, but a sud- 
den and yet complete entrance into a full con- 



How I Entered In. 191 

sciousness of all around and within. I knew it 
was the Lord. He has awakened me in like man- 
ner many times since. 

I was aroused thus for a final prayer. I shall 
never forget how my body p was wrenched in an 
agony of supplication for purity and an indwelling 
Christ. It seemed that it was wrung as I have 
seen a woman wring water out of a garment. I 
got to see how the blood was forced out of the body 
of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

After an hour thus spent, this agonizing plead- 
ing left me, and in a quietness of spirit that I can 
not describe, I arose, and went down to break- 
fast; but could eat nothing. Returning to my 
room, I sat down, with this great inward stillness 
upon my soul, and began softly singing to myself: 

''Down at the cross where my Savior died, 
Down where for cleansing from sin I cried s 
There to my heart was the blood applied; 
Glory to His name!" 

Suddenly I felt the blessing was coming. Some 
spiritual influence telegraphed ahead. I arose to 
my feet to receive it, and, as I was rising, it came 
upon me. Jesus entered the second time into His 
temple. He came this time to stay. He baptized 
me with the Holy Ghost and with fire. I knew it 



192 The Better Way. 

was the baptism of the Holy Ghost I was receiv- 
ing. I knew I was being sanctified. The Spirit 
told me so. He witnessed to the work that was 
being done in me, and wrote upon every billow of 
glory that rolled over my soul, "This is sanctifi- 
cation." 

I fell on my knees by the side of my bed, over- 
powered by the greatness of the blessing that had 
entered. I cried, and shouted with a voice that 
seemed literally propelled from within. I felt the 
blessing throughout me. It seemed to press upon 
my whole being. There was a sense of being actu- 
ally charged as an instrument with electricity. I 
thought for several minutes that I would die. I 
could only say, "O my God! O my God!" and 
" Glory ! Glory ! Glory to God !" 

This wonderful day is past ; but the reflection 
still glows and burns in the sky. The storm of 
glory swept by ; but it left Jesus walking on the 
waves. The work abides. The witness remains. 
The soul is in a haven of rest. 

It was not for months afterward that I noticed 
that the disciples were sitting when they received 
the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and that it was at 
nine o'clock in the morning. 

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully 



How I Entered In. 193 

come, they were all with one accord in one place. 
And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven 
as of a mighty rushing wind, and it filled all the 
house where they were sitting. And there appeared 
unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat 
upon each of them. And they were all filled with 
the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other 
tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. . . . 
But Peter, standing up, . . . said, . . . These 
are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the 
third hour of the day." (That is, nine o'clock.) 

So with myself. I was sitting, and was in one 
accord with God and man, when suddenly the 
breath of Heaven and the fire came upon me, and 
I was filled with the Holy Ghost. And it was 
exactly nine o'clock, or the third hour of the day. 

I was converted in the morning, and sanctified 
in the morning, and, please God, I expect to rise 
in the morning of the resurrection, when Jesus 
appears in the sky and calls to the slumbering 
dead. 

God grant that the writer and reader may be 
children of the morning, and abide at last in the city 
of which it is said, " There is no night there !" 

THK END. 
13 



Tr*E BETTER -WAT liT^FAFT- 



The Better Aa£ky. 



BRIGHT. 

FRESH. 

CHARMING. 



Bv REV B CARRADINE DO neatly printed. 

uj new. o. UHnnnuuiE., u. u. FINELY BOUND. 

• 4<*The Eloquent Pastor Evangelist.^ ► > GOOD PAPER. 




REV. B. CARRADINE, D. D. 



This is his latest book. It has Twenty-four Sparkling Chapters on the fol- 
lowing>ubjects, and 193 Pages : 

I. Opening Words. 

II. The Better Redemption. 

III. The Better Prayer. 

IV. The Better Hope. # 

V. The More Excellent Sacrifice. 

VI. The Better Covenant. 
VILA Better Experience. 

VIII. A Better Supping. 

IX. The More Excellent Way. 
X A Better Life. 

XI. A Deeper Salvation. 

XII. A Greater Privilege. 

XIII. The Better Resurrection. 

XIV. The Abundant Entrance into Heaven. 

XV. The Better Reward at The Judgment. 

XVI. The Better Company in Heaven. 

XVII. The Higher Grade in Eternity. 

XVIII. How to Enter. XXI. The Methodist Way. 

XIX. Paul's Way. XXII. Witnesses in Wesley's Days. 

XX. The Savior's Way. XXIII. Witnesses in our Time. 

XXIV. How I entered In. 

Dr. Carradine has been heard to make the following- statement in regard to this 
book, which speaks stronger than volumes of commendatory notices. He said : 

"I think this book will be more convincing and effective in bringing people into 
the blessing of sanctification than any other book I have written." 

Neatly bound in cloth with half tone of Dr. Carradine, 75 cents. 

1. SANCTIFICATION. This book contains the author's experience and presents the 
blessing of holiness in such a light that it appears as fragrant as blooming flowers. 
It shows what Sanctification is and what it is not, where it is taught in the Bible, how 
it is obtained and objections answered. Twenty-one chapters which fairly drip with 
salvation honey. 80 cents. 

2. THE SECOND BLESSING IN SYMBOL. In this book the reception of the Gift of 
the Holy Ghost in the fullness of His heart-cleansing, filling, indwelling power, 
which John Wesley says is " the Second Blessing properly so called," is beautifully 
and clearly treated. SI. 00. 

3. A JOURNEY TO PALESTINE. If you want to see the Holy Land through Dr. 
Carradine's eyes get this book. 489 pages. Price, SKI. 50. 

4. THE BOTTLE. A Temperance Address. 20 cents. 

5. TWENTY OBJECTIONS TO CHURCH ENTERTAINMENTS. This book shows the 
"Better Way" of church finances as taught in the Word and calls attention to the 
other ways which have so often brought a reproach upon the cause of Christ. If you 
want to scatter light on this subject circulate this book. Cloth, 50 cents. The S*t, 
$3.70. Sample Revivalist fre«. 

Address M. W. KNAPP, Publisher, Revivalist Office, Y. M. C. A. Building, Cincinnati, 0. 



R PEfiTECOSTAU MB$A$Y. 

By REV. S. A. KEEN, 

THE PENTECOSTAL PASTOR EVANGELIST. 



t 



Forceful, 

Glowing. 



j&H 






^ 



* 



Good Type, 
Well Bound. 



$ 



OVER 60,000 CIRCULATED. 



I. FAITH PAPERS 



2. PRAISE PAPERS 



3. PENTECOSTAL PAPERS 



Teaches how to obtain salvation. Lucidly as light it treats 
"When," "What," and " How to Believe," "The Witness of 

Faith," "Fullness of Faith," "Gift of Faith," and "Prayer of Faith. Ten chapters. 45,000 

copies sold. Cloth, 40 cents. 

Is salvation experienced. Dr. Keen's spiritual auto- 
biography ; the story of his experience, with its rich lessons. 
It is warm with the pulsation of divine life. Cloth, with portrait of author, 30 cents. New 
edition has closing chapter by his wife, on his last hours and Pentecostal departure. 

Shows the relation of the Holy Ghost 
to Salvation. Seventeen Bible expositions 
— "The Pentecostal Promise," " Gift," "Fullness," " Baptism," "Anointing," and " Bestow- 
ment." They have been given with gracious results at over sixty Annual Conferences. Un- 
surpassed as a book of readings on the Holy Ghost. Cloth, 50 cents. 

4QAI X/ATIfMVI PAPPRQ -Dr. Keen's last book, completed only a few days 
■ WttL-Vn I IXJW mrtnO, before he passed into Paradise, explains the na- 
ture of salvation. It contains a memorial chapter by Evangelist Joseph H. Smith, with 
mention of his triumphant translation, and nine chapters on the following subjects: " Personal 
Salvation," "Present Salvation," "Partial Salvation," "Perfect Salvation." Cloth, 35 cents. 

Columns of commendatory comment of the author and his books could be given, but their 
highest tribute is that they have been wonderfully used of God in leading into the experi- 
ences of salvation. The estimate of thousands who have read them is voiced in the words of 
Bishop Mallalieu, who, writing of one of them, said: "I wish a million copies might be sold 
and read." 

These four books form a complete and harmonious whole on the vital subject of personal 
salvation. They are uniform in size and style, and make such a Pentecostal soul-winning 
library of glowing Full Salvation books as should be in every Pastor's and Teacher's Library, 
Sunday-school, and Home. 

A monument to dr. keen 

Can we glorify God and honor a worthy worker better than by erecting a monument to his 
memory of immortal spirits that shall have been saved through the reading of these books? 
What joy it will bring, on earth and in heaven ! How Dr. Keen will rejoice as he greets them 
in the heavenly home ! Shall it not be erected ? Will you not aid ? 

The books are printed by Cranston & Curts, and appear in keeping with the reputa- 
tion of their house. The control of their publication and sale has been placed in the hands of 
the undersigned, who wants WORKERS EVERYWHERE to aid in their circulation. 
Write for special rates. Address 

Rev. M. W. KNAPP, Y. M. C. A. BuiMing, Cincinnati, Ohio. 



. . . SALVATION . . . 
PAPERS, BOOKS, TRACTS, 
AND PAMPHLETS MADE. 




NEW TYPE, FIRST-CLASS 

BINDING, REASONABLE 

. . . RATES. . . . 



M. W. KNAPP, 

Revivalist Office. 



T 



Y. M. C. A. BLDG., 

CINCINNATI, OHIO. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: August 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Tnomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-21 1 1 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



■■ , >'. .' . 





014 651 016 4 




